Love Photos Joan Latchford

Love Isn’t Limited: Joan Latchford

Black and white photograph of a woman sitting in a chair outside. She has her hair in a tall afro and is wearing large drop earrings. She is wearing a long-sleeved ribbed knit sweater and plaid shorts. She is holding a cigarette in her left hand. Behind her out of focus is a large tree with people sitting against it.

Woman, Caribana 1971, Toronto, Love Isn’t Limited exhibition, 2021 Heritage Toronto Awards Public History Nominee. Image: Joan Latchford.

Black and white photograph of two toddler aged boys. One is standing with a hand on a tricycle, the other sitting on the sidewalk with his back to the camera. The boy standing is wearing light coloured overalls and sneakers. The boy sitting is wearing a heathered sweater and jeans. Beside them is a car. More cars and several trees are in the background. The sun is shining.

Love Isn’t Limited, Toronto, 1961, “Love Isn’t Limited” Collection, 2021 Heritage Toronto Awards Public History Nominee. Image: Joan Latchford

Black and white photo of a man. He is wearing a floppy brimmed hat, metal framed glasses, t-shirt, and vest which has "FRISBY" printed above the right pocket. a long metal chain around his neck is tucked into the same chest pocket. He is holding part of an ice cream cone in his right hand.

Frisby, Draft Resister, Rochdale, Red, White, and Black, Toronto, 1970, “Love Isn’t Limited” exhibition, 2021 Heritage Toronto Awards Public History Nominee. Image: Joan Latchford.

Black and white photograph of a crowd of people, two young boys in the front. Both the boys and the woman behind them are looking into the camera. The boy on the left is wearing a white striped collared shirt with a ribbed knit vest, a corduroy newsboy hat is sitting tilted across his head. The boy on the right is wearing a tank-top and large newsboy hat.

Caps, Caribana, Toronto Island, 1972, “Love Isn’t Limited” collection, 2021 Heritage Toronto Awards Public History Nominee. Image: Joan Latchford.

Photography Exhibition by The Cardinal Gallery

Date of Project Release: November 9, 2020

“Love Isn’t Limited” comprises select B&W photographs from Joan Latchford’s 60s & 70s era exploration of Toronto’s diversity and diaspora. Through her signature “spontaneous and unposed technique” we witness Latchford’s keen eye for documenting the rarely recognized lives of people new to Toronto. Starting in the 1960s Joan Latchford was commissioned by the NFB Stills Division to capture images exploring Toronto’s diaspora under the assignment headings: “Children of Canada” and “Middle Class Life”. Latchford, who was tired of seeing Canada’s under-represented communities documented as “poor, angry confrontational… reinforcing stereotypes” set out to photograph people living their everyday lives at home and on the streets.

About Joan Latchford

Born in Canada but educated in Britain, Latchford initially trained as a Public-School teacher in England. In 1958 she taught “emotionally disturbed” boys in Brixton. Her deep Catholic faith led her to enter the convent there where she became a nun for 7 years. She eventually realized that a different life was calling her and moved to Toronto. She started a drop-in every Tuesday evening for immigrants new to Canada to meet, drink coffee and engage in other activities with English-speaking people. It was one fateful Tuesday evening in her tiny apartment with 75 people in attendance that she met her future husband Frank. He proposed to her three weeks later and they built a family of eight children together, 6 adopted, 2 “home grown”. Motherhood didn’t deter her ambition to engage with community and the Latchford home was open to any and all who needed safe haven. Through her photographs we see not only the depth of an era but also the interests and curiosities of a photographer who was called by all that urban life had to offer. Joan passed away in 2017 but her legacy lives on through her poignant images.