Article

John Vanderpant

Published Online February 6, 2008

Last Edited March 4, 2015

John Vanderpant, photographer (b Jan van der Pant at Alkmaar, Netherlands 11 Jan 1884; d at Vancouver 24 July 1939). A major influence on Canadian photography in the 1920s and 1930s, he established a distinctive style that

Vanderpant, John

 John Vanderpant, photographer (b Jan van der Pant at Alkmaar, Netherlands 11 Jan 1884; d at Vancouver 24 July 1939). A major influence on Canadian photography in the 1920s and 1930s, he established a distinctive style that emphasized light and form and generally shunned popular manipulative processes. After being a photojournalist for a Dutch magazine, he came to Canada in 1911. He opened a studio in Okotoks, Alta, and after WWI moved to BC, eventually settling in Vancouver, where he set up a commercial portrait studio. He began exhibiting in international salons, quickly achieving acclaim and winning awards around the world; his solo exhibitions toured the US, Great Britain and Europe. A fellow of the Royal Photographic Soc of Great Britain, he also wrote and lectured widely. His Robson Street gallery, opened in 1926 with Harold Mortimer-Lamb, was a centre for music, poetry and painting.