Brian Clarkson

Photography and Memory

by Margaret Tessman

Brian Clarkson figures that he has taken in excess of a million photographs of people over the course of his career but can count on one hand his favourites.

Clarkson’s relationship with the camera began at age 16 when he started working for the Nelson Daily News. “I spent one afternoon a week processing film in the darkroom,” he says. “I became passionate about photography.” In 1967, editor Art Gibbon offered him a job as full-time photographer for the paper. A week into his job, Clarkson photographed Prosper Ralston, a musician who was living in a basement apartment in Nelson with his collection of harps and very little else. Clarkson positioned a table lamp beside Ralston and took the photo, which ended up getting national attention from Canadian Press. “It was very emotional. My heart broke,” says Clarkson of the encounter. “The camera has brought me in proximity to some amazing individuals.”

Incidentally, Clarkson was invited to help put the last issue of the Nelson Daily News to bed before the paper closed in 2010. “It meant a lot to me,” he says.

By 1969 Clarkson was working at Eddie Black’s camera store in Toronto while looking for a job in journalism. On his days off, Clarkson would get into tourist mode and drive around southern Ontario. “I stopped the car when I saw a horse and surrey one day,” he says. “I took one photo and started talking to the driver to ask for directions.”

Years later, Clarkson found the image on a roll of slide film and made an 8-by-10 print. “I thought it looked pretty good. A voice in the office asked, ‘Who authored this photograph? That’s my farm.'” By some crazy serendipity, Clarkson and the surrey driver had ended up at the same newspaper in the same Ontario town. The photo is now hanging in Brian’s dining room.

Fast forward to 1975. Clarkson returned to B.C. and opened Cranbrook Photo, operating it for 38 years before retiring in 2013. Later, “I got involved with environmental issues and travelled the world to work as a photographer for a number of NGOs,” he says. Clarkson has been a hospice volunteer for the last 13 years and currently is the intake coordinator for the Cranbrook Kimberley Hospice Society.

A solo show of Clarkson’s photos entitled “Bookends” opened at the Key City Theatre in Cranbrook on November 12 and will run until December 20. As house photographer for Key City for 30 years, “I always have the best seats in the house,” he says. “It’s a nice recognition for me.” In addition to the 40-odd prints on display, five of his favourite photos were framed and auctioned off as a fundraiser for the Hospice Society. The exhibit will make its way to Fernie, Invermere, Creston and Kimberley over the winter.

Clarkson is a storyteller with fascinating (and typically humble) anecdotes to tell about a life lived well behind the lens, in his community and in the wider world. “Photos are my diary,” he says. “I can recall the minutest details. After all these years I’m still engaged.”

Brian’s Instagram