Fonds consists of photographs taken and a selection of artwork created by Andrew Danson during his career as a doucmentary photographer, portraitist and artist.
The fonds covers all of Danson's major projects, including Unoffical Portraits, a project and book of self-portraits by key Canadian politicians in the 1980s, and Face Kao, a project and book of portraits of Japanese Canadians interned during World War II that is composed of portraits and oral history interviews of the Japanese Community, mainly Issei (1st generation) and Nissei (2nd generation) as well as some Sansei (3rd generation), now living in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.
The fonds also consists of his Toronto Portraits, and Toronto Portraits Revisited, as well as the large body of work of portraits taken in Newfoundland. Also included are photographs taken in Cuba, China, Tibet, Morocco, Palestine and Israel, East Africa and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as a series of portraits he took in Jamaica. Danson also photographed many well known Canadians, such as authors Margaret Atwood, Bruce Powe, Sylvia Fraser, and artist Joe Mendelson, as well as Oscar Peterson, Denys Arcand, Mary Pratt, Billy Merasty, Salome Bey, Jane Ash Poitras and Denise Fujiwara. His Chassidic Portraits, taken mostly in Toronto in 1997, are a rare documentation of a particular religious community in the midst of their religious practices. Also included are all the photographs and a few interviews he did for Time Sure Not be Long Gone, a documentation of all citizens of the Change Islands, NL. There are also photographic nudes of women taken during a fellowship in Prague, and a large variety of editorial or other documentary work. There is a selection of his photo-based art which generally considered questions about identity, the environment and Canadian and American mass media and consumerism.
Photographic material for the Face Kao project consists of depictions of the following individuals: Joanne Ault, Midge Ayukawa, Ellen Crowe-Swords, John Ichio Deshima, Yuriko Deshima, Nami Doi, Kojiro Ebisuzaki, Yaeko Ebisuzaki, Kikuyo Eto, Shigezo Eto, Rai Fujikawa, Misao Yoneyama Fujiwara, Mitsumori Wesley Fujiwara, Allan Fukushima, Paula Fukushima, Akiko Godo, Moichi Godo, Fumiko Greenaway, Hideichi Hamada, Yoshimaru Hamada, Gene Hamagishi, Terry Hamagishi, Marion Hamaguchi, Sakae Hashimoto, Masao Hayashi, Yosoya Hayashi, Kelvin Higo, Kei Hirano, Hayao Hirota, Kichiro Hirota, Jiro Hisaoka, Roy Honda, Hisako Hoshino, Kiku Ibuki, Mike Idenouye, Yoshiye Ikebuchi, Pauline Inose, Roy Inouye, Seiji Inouye, Tokuko Inouye, Shin Imai, Bill (Hanichi) Ito, and John Ito.
Katsuo Kage, Chie Kamegaya, Bryce Kanbara, Fumiko Kanbara, Tameo Kanbara, Sonoe Kawabata, Iwaichi Kawashiri, Isobel Kimoto, Mary Kimoto, Don Kimura, Yoshi Kinoshita, Ed Kitagawa, Jean Kitagawa, Dave Kitamura, Frank Kitamura, George Kitamura, Masaru Kitamura, Yoshi Kitamura, Roy Kiyooka, Akemi Kobayashi, Kikuzo (Koby) Kobayashi, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Joy Kogawa, Les Kojima, Fumi Kono, Misayo Kono, Walter Koyanagi, Hide Kubota, Nobuo (Nobby) Kubota, Ai Kurokawa, John Yoshio Madakoro, Peter Maede, Larry Maekawa, Cathy Makihara, Masasai Matsuda, Craig Matsuhara, Marianne Matsuhara, Mayumi Matsuhara, Marcia Matsui, Matt Yoshio Matsui, Nobuko Matsui, Push Matsumiya, Sada Matsumiya, Isamu Sam Matsumoto, Kimiko Matsunaga, Shoichi (Spud) Matsushita, Sumie Matsushita, Tom Mitsunaga, Dentaro Miyamoto.
Mamoru Miyasaki, Yukio Moizumi, Kenzo Mori, Nancy Mori, Senya Mori, Shigeru Mori, Tadashi (Tad) Mori, Haruji (Harry) Morihara, Raymond Moriyama, Marlene Mortensen, Bob Motokado, George Mukai, Roy Muraki, Yuki Nagata, Ayako Nakamura, Dick Nakamura, Frank Nakamura, Lisa Nakamura, Neiko Nakamura, Gordon Nakayama, Robert Nishikawa, Susumi Jim Nishiyama, Dick Nitsui, Kenny Nitsui, Rena Nitsui, Ume Niwatsukino, Tom Nogami, Ken Noma, Ume Nose, Mike Nukina, Mary Obata, Roger Obata, Mike Ochiai, Tsume Ochiai, Chieko Ogawa, uta Ohashi, Norm Oikawa, Aelene Oishi, Yoshiyuki Oishi, Harry Okada, Koichiro Okihiro, Aki Omatani, Emiko Ono, George Osaka, Joe Hayaru Oyama, Sadako Oyama, Shirley Oye, Shiro Oye and Mary Yoshie Rumble.
Ron Sakamoto, Michiko Sakata, Fusako (Flo) Sano, Koharu Sano, Misako Sasaki, Arthur Hitoshi Sato, Nobori Sawada, Yoshio Senda, Naomi Shikaze, Henry Shimizu, Kimiko Shimizu, Kyoshi (Kay) Shimizu, Polly Shimizu, Shigeyoshi Shimizu, Walter Shimozawa, Kuz Shoyama, Tom Shoyama, Ken Soga, Mable Soga, Mas Sunada, Aiko Suzuki, Gayle Swanson, Hannah Tabata, Harry Tabata, Mayu Takasaki, Kuri Takenaka, Fumi Tamagi, Sanya (Tom) Tanaka, Ken Tanouye, Steve Tatemichi, Kimiko Tegami, Yoshiro Tegami, Mas Terakita, Mary Toshiko, Harry Kaname Tsuchiya, George Tsujikawa, George Tsuruda, Roy Uyeda, Komei Uyeyama, Kinu Wakayama, Tamio Wakayama, Terry Watada, Roger Watanaka, Shintaro Yamada, Daiso Yamashiro, Takeo Yamashiro, Mickey Yokome, Kimi Yoshida, and Takeji Yoshimaru.
The Unofficial Portraits project includes, but is not limited to self-portraits by the following individuals: Harvie Andre, John Bosley, Robert Bourassa, Edward Broadbent, John M. Buchanan, Patricia Carney, Jean Chrétien, Sheila Copps, Grant Devine, Jake Epp, John A. Fraser, Donald Getty, Joseph A. Ghiz, Herb Gray, Richard B. Hatfield, Otto Jelinek, Pauline Jewett, Robert P. Kaplan, Stanley Howard Knowles, Roch Lasalle, Flora MacDonald, Marcel Masse, Barbara Jean McDougall, Brian Mulroney, John V. Nunziata, Howard R. Pawley, Alfred Brian Peckford, Tony Penikett, David Peterson, Nelson Riis, Svend J. Robinson, Thomas E. Siddon, Sinclair stevens, John N. Turner, William N. Vander Zalm and Michael Holcombe Wilson.
All photographs are by Andrew Danson.
The fonds also includes a small amount of ephemera from exhibitions, including posters and invitations.
