Join photographer Laura Jones in conversation with the AGO’s Sophie Hackett about the history of photography in Toronto, including the Baldwin St. Gallery of Photography which Jones operated from 1969 to 1980. The Baldwin St. Gallery of Photography was opened in 1969 by John F. Phillips (1945-2010) and Laura Jones. It was the first independent photography gallery in Canada and was situated at 23 Baldwin St. in Toronto.. In 1974 the original gallery closed but functioned in various pop-up locations until 1980, when it was situated at 38 Baldwin St. for one year.

Laura Jones is Toronto based freelance writer, photographer, and community advocate. She has written a shelf full of articles, reports, newsletters, pamphlets and photographed three children’s books. Jones has exhibited her photographs across Canada from a laundromat in Labrador to a gallery in Vancouver. Laura's current project is gathering information about women photographers working in Canada before confederation.

Sophie Hackett is the AGO’s Curator, Photography. Since 2006 when she joined the Photography Department, she has curated many exhibitions and collection installations, written and contributed to a number of publications, participated on international juries and maintained an active academic profile. She is currently an adjunct faculty member in Ryerson University’s Master’s degree program in Film + Photography Preservation and Collections Management, and was a 2017 Fellow with the Center for Curatorial Leadership. Hackett’s areas of specialty include vernacular photographs; photography in relation to queerness; and photography in Canada from the1960s to the 1990s. Hackett’s curatorial projects include Barbara Kruger: Untitled (It) (2010); Max Dean: Album, A Public Project (2012); What It Means To be Seen: Photography and Queer Visibility and Fan the Flames: Queer Positions in Photography (2014); Introducing Suzy Lake (2014); Outsiders: American Photography and Film, 1950s–1980s (2016); Anthropocene (2018) and Diane Arbus: Photographs, 1956–1971 (2020).