Kells, Harold F., 1904-1986 : Harold Frederick Kells was born in Ottawa on October 2, 1904. An artist-turned-photographer, he achieved international prominence during the mid-1930's for his composite figure studies and pictorial landscapes. Kells joined the Ottawa Art Club in his early teens, and studied modelling, casting, life drawing and painting. He then worked as a commercial artist, continuing his art studies all the while. In the late twenties, Kells became mildly interested in a camera that a friend had purchased - a roll-film, postcard-size Kodak. He borrowed it and tried a self-portrait, and, he admits "was bitten by the photography bug".
His first salon submissions were not accepted, but Kells persisted, and in 1931 a bromoil entitled Design was hung at the Toronto Salon of Photography. In 1932 Kells began to exhibit in earnest. His salon output was never prodigious, but he quickly achieved international acclaim. Kells'" prints won prizes at salons in England, The United States, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Spain, as well as awards from annual and monthly competitions of "American Photography" and "Camera Craft". Kells served on the executive of The Camera Club of Ottawa during the thirties and was instrumental in organizing the first Canadian International Salon of Photographic Art. He was also a member of the jury of selection of the first Western Ontario Salon of Photography in 1936. But after 1935 his salon and print acceptances fell off dramatically. His prints continued to appear, but his pictorialist efforts declined. In 1938, Kells was awarded the Stephen H. Tyng Foundation Award of the Royal Photographic Society for his print "Grecian Nocturne", first shown three years earlier.
Between 1933 and 1938, Kells had operated a studio, first as a portrait photographer for Photographic Stores of Ottawa, then on his own. But his work was not confined to photography; many of his oil paintings were used as design for vignettes on bank notes, stocks and bonds by the British American and Canadian Bank Note Companies. Business slumped as war threatened, and Kells took a temporary position with the Public Relations Branch of the Post Office. With the declaration of war, Kells was asked to travel with the "March of Time" movie unit to do a series of promotional photographs of Canada's war effort. Kells then returned to the Post Office where he remained until his retirement in 1966. At the same time, he turned to colour photography whir he pursued for the next decade until ill-health forced him to curtail his activities. Harold F. Kells passed away on August 20, 1986.
