Acquisition consists of various photo assignments undertaken by photojournalist Ronny Jaques and published by magazines such as New World Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Macleans and Mayfair. Subjects include Calgary Stampede, Alta; lobster fishing, Cape Brûlé, N. B.; skiing at Mont-Tremblant, Que. and in the Canadian Rockies; Kirkland Lake Mining, Ont.; Theatre productions of the plays "Huit Clos" by Jean-Paul Sartre and "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck in Montreal, Que.; Canada Packers, Toronto, On.; Volkhoff ballet, Toronto, Ont.; Arthur Lismer's children's art classes; Gaspésia, Que.; Highland Games, Antigonish, N.S.; Jack Miner and Canadian Geese; Mental Health Institute; Saskatoon and wheat, Sask.; Farms Service Force in Ontario; Maple Sugar production in Ontario; photo stories on Canadian cities Beaverton, Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg; Canadian Oil Rigs at Turner Valley, Alta; Woman's Air Force; Woman's Army; Ottawa, Ont.; Woman's College Hospital; 48th Highlanders; Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Halifax, N.S.; portraits include: Gratien Gélinas, Claude Champagne, Alice Bradshaw, Pierre Dagenais, Emanuel Otto Hahn, Harry Oaks, Ronny Jaques, Father Thopkuis, actors of the John Holden Players Company, Joe Ryan, Herman Faulkner and Hans Gadner.
In addition, a series of Canadian artists portrait that were featured in Harper's Bazaar magazine in 1946. Portraits include Claude Champagne (musician), Alain Grandbois (poet), Alfred Pellan (painter), René Garneau, Robert LaPalme (painter and cartoonist), André Mathieu (musician), Paul Borduas (painter), Gratien Gélinas (comedian and writer), Pierre Dagenais (comedian), Gabrielle Roy (writer), Roger Lemelin (writer), Fletcher Markel (sculptor), Thomas Costain (author) and Audrey McClaren (?).
Jaques, Ronny : Ronny Jaques studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London, England. He opened a studio with his brother Louis in Toronto in the 1930s. He took theatre photos of touring Companies, and their stars; among them the young Jessica Tandy in Bernhard Shaw's "Major Barbara" ... performance photos of the touring Ballet Russe in Toronto in the late 1930s and early 1940s with such stars as Danilova, Toumanov, Baronova, Youskevitch, Eglevsky, Franklin and Leonide Massine. He did a series of Jazz Greats in performance including Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holliday, Benny Goodman, Earl "Fatha Hines" and Nat "King" Cole, in Toronto and New York. During World War II, he joined the National Film Board of Canada headed by John Grierson as his first reportage photographer, did assignments as the Opening of the Alcan (Alaska) Highway; Great Lakes Shipping: Norwegian Air Force Training in Canada; covering Royal Air Force Transport Command and both of the Quebec Conferences with President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, William Lyon Mackenzie King and the various Chiefs of Staff; opening the Goose Bay, Labrador airport and the Rehabilitation Program for Veterans. He worked for the Montreal Standard at the end of the war (1945-1946), covering the official visit of the Commander in Chief, General Dwight Eisenhower to Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. Then the first story of Jackie Robinson at Spring training for the Brooklyn Dodgers, when he was sent to the Montreal Club as a tryout afterwards. And photographing the rehearsals of Lilian Smith's "Strange Fruit" with Mel Ferrer. This proved instrumental in his moving to New York as a monthly contributor to Harper's Bazaar doing personalities. Among them: Marlon Brando (about to open in "Streetcar Named Desire"); Gian Carlo Menotti; Carson McCullors; Stephen Spender; Oliver Smith. He worked with editors like Carmel Snow and Diana Vreeland and Art Directors Alexey Brodovitch and Lilian Bassman. After moving to Town and Country Magazine in 1949, he enjoyed working relationship with Editors Henry Sell and Anthony Mazzola for over 15 years. Assignments included many cities in USA; Irish writers; the Ski "explosions" in Europe and the US; Paris Couture Openings, always using world personalities in the photographs rather than models, and West Coast fashions using Hollywood film personalities. Also many assignments at the old Holiday Magazine for editor Ted Patrick and Art Director Frank Zachary. The most Fashionable Women of Europe, South America and the US... The Great Couturiers of Europe and the US. Among the many film and theatre personalities photographed in fashion for Town and Country and Holiday magazines were Rosalind Russell, Loretta Young, Dina Merrill, Jill St.John, Lauren Bacall, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Dana Wynter, Margaret Leighton, Siobhan McKenna and Joan Crawford. In 1955, three of his photos were picked for Edward Steichen's, Family of Man exhibition. For MacLeans Magazine, he illustrated several installments of Bruce Hutchinson's "Canada the Unknown Country". The Newfoundland photo of several fishermen staining at the oars was awarded the New York Art Directors' Award in 1956 for the best colour illustration of a story. After moving to Europe to live in 1963, he was soon photographing for Jane Montant, the Editor of Gourmet Magazine, and for about 25 years covered scores of travel stories all over Europe, India and the Far East as well as the photos for the book Gourmet's France. He retired in 1992. Biography provided by Ronny Jaques.
