'You see time pass by': Archivists reuniting Yellowknifers with old photos

Archivists in Yellowknifehave spent two years sifting through almost 60,000 portraits, in order to reunite them with their rightful owners.

The photos were taken by photographers at the city's Reimann Studio, later known as Yellowknife Photo, and were donated to the NWT Archives in 2008.

Visitors to the NWT Archives website can now search for their family name and claim the negatives from photography sessions dating back to the 1960s.

"You see time pass by. Fashions change and hairstyles change," said senior archivist Erin Suliak.

"There are pictures of people who are long gone. There are children who are now adults and fine, upstanding members of our community."

More than 250 people have already applied to be reunited with old portrait photos.

"The town was smaller and this was the place to go for portrait photography, so a lot of people are here. These families are still here in Yellowknife if not the people who commissioned the photos themselves, then maybe their heirs."

Anyone who submits a claim via the NWT Archives website can expect to receive an original envelope of negatives this fall if their submission is successful.

The archives, housed alongside Yellowknife's museum at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, took possession of around 9,000 such envelopes after Yellowknife's photo centre closed.

Massive collection

Suliak says it makes sense to return the images to the people featured in them, or their families, as commercial photography holdings like these "can be a little tricky" for archives to manage.

"It's because of the massive scale if a business is open for 40, 50 or 60 years, there's bound to be a ton of material," she said.

"Part of the challenge is that an archive will appreciate the value within it but not necessarily be able to keep, or deal withthe entire scale. There are a couple of archives in Alberta that did these 'repatriation' projects and that's where the idea started.

"We're really looking forward to reuniting these photos with their families."

Gerry Reimann, a German immigrant to Canada, began his photography business in Yellowknife after moving to the North in the 1950s. He retired to Vancouver Island in 1986 before he died last Aprilat the age of 88.

Bob Wilson took over Reimann's business in 1983 and ran the company for a quarter of a century. He donated the studio's vast collection of negatives to the NWT Archives after closing down in 2008.