Robert Lansdale documented the mid-century era with ingenuity and a deep knowledge of his craft, shooting everything from local fires and robberies to a historic English Channel crossing by teenage Canadian swimmer Marilyn Bell
On Nov. 26, 1955, the Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Montreal Alouettes 34-19 in the first Grey Cup game ever played in Vancouver. As the 39,417 football fans exited Empire Stadium, Bob Lansdale and the other press photographers processed their film of the game in a makeshift darkroom on site. By the time he finished, Mr. Lansdale had only an hour to catch his Saturday night flight back to Toronto, leaving him no opportunity to properly dry a sink full of negatives needed to make prints later.
As a press photographer in the 1950s and ‘60s, Mr. Lansdale documented a mid-century era in black and white, in a city lousy with competing newspapers. Working for press agencies with close ties to the Toronto Star and Star Weekly, his assignments ran the gamut from local fires, tea parties and robberies to trips covering army manoeuvres in wintry Churchill, Man., and overseas, where fortunate positioning and a disregard for his own welfare got him his most famous shot.
“You could sense this guy had done it a zillion times before,” Mr. Hryhorijiw said. “Bob projected this incredible self-confidence that you did not mess with.”Mr. Lansdale covered front-page 1950s breaking news that included the Springhill mining disasters in Nova Scotia, the riotous Newfoundland loggers’ strike and Queen Elizabeth’s official visits to her largest dominion. His assignments took him everywhere from Kuala Lumpur to Caledon, Ont.
With photojournalism, it is often a matter of being in the right place at the right time. “But Bob made his own luck,” Mr. Hryhorijiw said. “He thought about where he needed to be, he got there, and he nailed it.”Robert Ernest Lansdale was born March 10, 1931, in Etobicoke, Ont. Like many people during the Great Depression, his parents, William Rodney Lansdale and Constance Mary Lansdale , struggled to make ends meet.
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In photos: Photojournalist Robert Lansdale captured history in the makingRobert (Bob) Lansdale was a press photographer in the 1950s and 60s documenting a mid-century era in black and white. His coverage included the Springhill mining disasters in Nova Scotia, the riotous Newfoundland loggers’ strike and Queen Elizabeth’s official visits. The most famous photo Mr. Lansdale captured was of Canadian marathon swimmer Marilyn Bell after crossing the English Channel from Calais, France. Mr. Lansdale died of a heart attack on July 13 at Trillium Health Partners hospital in Mississauga, Ont.
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In photos: Photojournalist Robert Lansdale captured history in the makingRobert (Bob) Lansdale was a press photographer in the 1950s and 60s documenting a mid-century era in black and white. His coverage included the Springhill mining disasters in Nova Scotia, the riotous Newfoundland loggers’ strike and Queen Elizabeth’s official visits. The most famous photo Mr. Lansdale captured was of Canadian marathon swimmer Marilyn Bell after crossing the English Channel from Calais, France. Mr. Lansdale died of a heart attack on July 13 at Trillium Health Partners hospital in Mississauga, Ont.
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