Series contains photographic material produced for Weekend Magazine, which ran from 1951 to 1979. In 1938, owner John W McConnell appointed his son John G McConnell as president of the Standard Publishing Co. Under his guidance, The Standard was transformed in 1951 into Weekend Magazine. This magazine was delivered every Saturday to Canadian households through a distribution network of local newspapers. In bringing mainly lightweight stories from across the country to readers everywhere, it was a showcase for Canadian documentary photography and featured on staff illustrious photographers such as Bert Beaver, Bruce Moss, Frank Prazak, Jock Carroll and many others (as well as a host of freelancers).
From a photographic standpoint, this series shows the shift from photostory format to illustrative use of photography as supporting written articles. The heyday of the photostory was over just as Weekend was created and while there are some examples of story telling through a sequence of photographs right up until the 1970s, the golden period for photostories had long since passed. However, Weekend Magazine was one of the most productive sources for Canadian images for its time period. Especially innovative photography can be found in Frank Prazak's sports photography: liberated by new technological developments, sports photography brought action home in a way television couldn't.
Weekend Magazine is notable in that through its distribution arrangement with local newspapers it achieved a massive circulation of 2.5 households at its peak. Weekend stories were an assortment of staples such as cooking, sports and fashion features, plus various cultural and political stories. The emphasis on the stories was strongly Canadian, and serious attempts were made to send staff on assignments throughout the country. As such, this collection contains countless images from many areas of the country on a wide variety of topics.
