Carol Payne's 'How Shall We Use These Gifts?'

Carol Payne, an associate professor of history and photography theories at Carleton University, wrote an article titled “How Shall We Use These Gifts?” Imaging the Land in the National Film Board of Canada’s Still Photography Division, in 2007. Her article was written to examine photographs and photo-essays that were produced by the National Film Board of Canada’s Still Photography Division, during the 1950s and 1960s. The images reflect Canadian landscapes and natural resources. These images reached a large Canadian and international audience, numbering in the millions. In effect, it served as a portrayal as Canada. The purpose of Carol Payne’s essay was to focus on photo-stories that were produced between 1955 and 1969. She argued that
These images were taken in Thunder Bay in northern Ontario, featuring Eskimos fishing in the frigid waters. According to Payne, these images presented an entirely different view as compared to the Prairie farm photos. The Eskimos presented in the second set were shown Arctic char fishing. The Eskimos used ancient tools such as spears and the procedures included wading into the cold waters with the fish catches lined up on the water’s edge. Payne utilizes the concept of gaze to illustrate that the concept of colonialism. In the textbook Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture, modernity is a term that was used to refer “to the historical, cultural, political, and economic conditions related to the Enlightenment period”. Since Europe played such a major role in the modernization of many other cultures, there was a sense of “paternalistic benevolence” by the Europeans towards the subjects in the colonies. This concept was used by Payne to explain the same paternalistic attitude in the images chosen to represent the Eskimos. She presented the contrast of the farming images where the latest technologies were featured and compared it to those of the aboriginals which gave the impression they were primitive because they merely used basic tools and
As stated earlier, I also do not agree that Euro-Canadians feel that they are entitled to use Canada’s vast landforms in any way they desire without regard for the environment. The reason is that although Payne did present an argument that photographs are not fully objective and can be presented with specific viewpoints to show the (and perhaps unconsciously) superiority of Euro-Canadians, there was no evidence presented that showed the NFB viewed this land as theirs to exploit. Another point that I felt was difficult to accept is that the land’s only value is related to what economic benefit it provides to Canada. For example, her photo of the deer wading through the waters of the Rocky Mountains do not portray economic benefit provided to us by the environment, unless it was intended as a statement encouraging maximization of economic tourism benefits. I do agree, whether deliberate or not, that Aboriginals are often presented in a stereotypical manner. Whether this is for paternalistic reasons or just to portray that they have a clean, simple way of life that does not harm our natural resources can be debated. Overall, it was a well-written article that stimulates