Michael Glassbourg
TickleScratch Productions
24 minutes • 2003

Andrew Danson is a photographer, artist, curator, author and educator who in the 1980s convinced Jean Chrétien and Canada's 10 provincial premiers to take photographs of themselves alone in their offices for what was to become his best-selling book Unofficial Portraits. Danson's photographs are collected by museums in France, Belgium, Great Britain and Canada. Among Danson's work is an extensive collection of portraits of Japanese Canadians interned by the government of Canada during WWII. Danson divides his time between Toronto and Change Island, Newfoundland.

In this documentary, Danson moves through his home, his studio and his haunts both in Toronto and on Change Island. He also gives a talk at the Art Gallery of Ontario entitled "The Mystery of the Street." Though many photographers have shot some of Danson's subjects, such as Newfoundland, the originality of his eye and dynamics of his vision are clear.

Subject(s): Artists–Andrew Danson, Photography