The photographic series constitutes a large and important group of industrially related images. They were created by the company primarily for its own internal purposes : as identification documentation on timber limits, equipment, plant, town sites (Baie Comeau, Thorold), construction sites (Baie Comeau, Manicouagan) and for the company's magazine, the Observation Post. The directors of the company's magazine seem to have commissioned a large number of photographs. Throughout the series, handwritten notations corresponding to page numbers in the Observation Post are often found on the reverse of prints. This is also visible by a sentence or two written on a piece of paper glued to on reverse of the prints describing the photographs, which is often the text used with photographs in the pages of the magazine.
Photographs cover the period from the Company's creation prior to the first World War in 1912 and continue until the 1990s, although material before the 1920s and after the 1970s is scarce. There are an estimated 30 050 photographs in the fonds (18 000 prints, 12 000 negatives, 50 transparencies and slides). Most prints and negatives are in black and white with only a few in colour. Transparencies and slides are mostly in colour. The large majority of photographs were taken by professional photographers, W.E. Shore for the Ontario prints and Paul Provencher for the North Shore stand out due to the large number of photographs by them.
The photography series has been divided into 8 subseries. The first subseries, Arthur Schmon and Robert McCormick, consists of scrapbooks and other photographs created by or arranged for the Ontario Paper Company president (1930 - 1964), Arthur Schmon and the Chicago Tribune president, Robert McCormick. The second subseries, the Observation Post, consists of negatives commissioned or otherwise required by the magazine. The next four subseries: Baie Comeau; Shelter Bay, Franquelin; Thorold; Heron Bay, Manitoulin, Northern Ontario Limits, consist of loose prints showing the mills and towns belonging to the company and their development. The seventh subseries shows the construction and engineering of dams as well as the installation of new machinery and experiments conducted by the Company. The eighth sub-series, Miscellaneous, groups various prints and albums that did not fit into any other sub-series.
