A glimpse into the unique, eccentric mind of a pioneering Canadian photographer: Hannah Maynard (1834-1918). Born in Cornwall, England, Maynard emigrated with her family to Vancouver Island in 1862, where she set up her own portrait studio that same year. After the sudden death of her youngest daughter, she produced a troubling series of experimental images that reflected her haunted state-an attempt to contact her beloved daughter's spirit. Considered overly bold and unconventional, Maynard experimented with such techniques as photosculpture, multiple exposure, and composite images. She developed a surreal vision, a world obsessed with children and death but also the spiritual possibilities of duality, of mirrors, and the infinity contained within them. After her retirement in 1912, she photographed scores of subjects passing through Victoria.
