George Hunter
George Hunter (1921 – 10 April 2013) was a Canadian documentary photographer born in Regina, Saskatchewan. His career spanned seven decades capturing industrial and landscape scenes on photographic film. His early work was for the National Film Board of Canada in the 1940s.
George Hunter

Bob Anderson · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- George Hunter
- Born
- 1921
- Birthplace
- Regina, Saskatchewan
- Died
- 10 April 2013 (aged 92)
- Place of death
- Mississauga, Ontario
- Known for
- photographer
- Nationality
- Canada
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
George Hunter (1921 – 10 April 2013) was a Canadian documentary photographer born in Regina, Saskatchewan. His career spanned seven decades capturing industrial and landscape scenes on photographic film. His early work was for the National Film Board of Canada in the 1940s.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for George Hunter. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
loc · n85323007 · wikidata · Q5540869
In this article
Biography
Biography
He was a pilot, and aerial photography was one of his specialties. His work included a 12-page cover story for Time Magazine in 1954. Other prominent uses of his work included being the basis of images printed by the Bank of Canada for three of its early 1970s bank notes. One of his photographs is contained on the Voyager Golden Record carried on the Voyager 1 and 2 interstellar space probes. He spent his final years living in Mississauga, Ontario, where he died in 2013.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — George Hunter • Born — 1921 • Birthplace — Regina, Saskatchewan • Died — 10 April 2013 (aged 92) • Place of death — Mississauga, Ontario • Known for — photographer
Career
Career
He was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and started taking photographs professionally for the newspapers like the Winnipeg Tribune.[1] He worked for the Tribune during World War II.[2] He also worked for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in the 1940s. After the war, he turned to freelance work. One of his main stylistic features is the use of aerial photography, since he was also an airplane pilot. His most high-profile work appeared in Time magazine in the mid-1950s, when his work on American landscapes, photographed at dusk were highlighted in the 20 September 1954 issue's 12-page article entitled "The U.S. After Dark". His work is represented in collections nationwide, including more than one hundred works at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography.
1970s Canadian banknote series
1970s Canadian banknote series
• Illustration — Engraving of George Hunter photograph on the back side of the Scenes of Canada $5 note, issued in 1972 Three of his images were used by the Bank of Canada for use in their early 1970 Scenes of Canada, or “Multicoloured,” series, which included the designs of the five, ten, and fifty dollar bills. His image of the BCP45 seine fishing boat was on the cover of the Toronto Stars weekend magazine, The Weekly Star, in 1958.[3] The image showed indigenous fishers setting up their seine net to catch salmon in British Columbia's Johnstone Strait. The Bank of Canada bought the rights to the photo and now controls the image.
Identity
Identity
George Hunter is recorded as photographer.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1921
George Hunter born at Regina.
2013
George Hunter died at Mississauga.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Regina.
Birth place
Mississauga.
Death place
Legacy
Hunter lived his later years in Mississauga, Ontario, in home that served also as his studio. He died in Mississauga at age 92 on 10 April 2013 at the Credit Valley Hospital.[5] In May 2017, the NFB and Canadian publisher Firefly Books announced that a selection of Hunter's work would be published in book form as George Hunter's Canada: Iconic Images from Canada's Most Prolific Photographer.[6]
Public collections
Public collections
The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Sherman Hines Photography Museum, New Brunswick Museum, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Canadian Centre of Architecture, McCord Museum, Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Montreal Historic Centre, Canadian Museum of Civilization, North Shore Regional Museum, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Library and Archives Canada, Portrait Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Robarts Library (University of Toronto), Mississauga Art Gallery, Manitoba Museum (HBC Collection), Winnipeg Art Gallery, Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, Whyte Museum of the Rockies, Atlas Coal Mines National Historic Park, Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Royal British Columbia Museum, Maritime Heritage Centre, N.W.T. Mining Heritage Society, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, MacBride Museum, Barbados Museum and Historical Society, Workers Arts and Heritage Centre.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority file
- Library of Congress Name Authority File, George Hunter, and Co. (n85323007).
General reference · Library of Congress
- VIAF cluster 284190662 for George Hunter, aggregating national library name authorities.
General reference · OCLC
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q5540869: George Hunter
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
Other honours
He was one of the first photographers to be accepted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and is a founding member of the Canadian Heritage Photography Foundation.[4] One of his photographs – of Toronto's Pearson International Airport – was included on the Voyager Golden Record carried on the Voyager 1 and 2 interstellar space probes. The Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators gave him a lifetime achievement award in 2001.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Art Gallery of Ontario. Songs of the Future: Canadian Industrial Photographs, 1858 to Today. 2010.
- 2.Carter, Bob. Tales of a Photographer: George Hunter. The Photographic Historical Society of Canada. 2003.
- 3.Iddon, Graham. The Fisher, the Photographer and the Five. The Museum Blog. Bank of Canada. 30 March 2023.
- 4.White, Jody. The most famous Canadian photographer you've never heard of You'd hardly know it, but George Hunter's work is everywhere. MacLean's. 1 June 2011.
- 5.Turnball, Barbara. George Hunter, 92, spent decades photographing Canada. Toronto Star. 12 April 2013.
- 6.CP Staff. From screen to page: National Film Board of Canada forays into book publishing. CityNews. The Canadian Press. 2 May 2017.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Library of Congress Name Authority File, George Hunter, and Co. (n85323007).Library of Congress
Secondary witnessauthority file
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
(Library of Congress Name Authority File, George Hunter, and Co. (n85323007).) • Born: George Hunter was born in 1921 at Regina.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Photography
11,392 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- George HirosePhotographer
- George HolzPhotographer
- George HotzPhotographer
- George Hoyningen-HuenePhotographer
- George HurrellPhotographer
- George KadishPhotographer
- George KrausePhotographer
- George LegradyPhotographer
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by George Hunter?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.