Lorraine Monk

Monk, Lorraine

Lorraine Monk, née Spurrell, photography curator, author (b at Montréal). She was educated at McGill (BA, MA). As executive producer of the Still Photography Division of the NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA 1960-80, Monk was instrumental in making the division a national cultural force, collecting, preserving, exhibiting and publishing contemporary Canadian PHOTOGRAPHY. In 1967 she inaugurated "The Photo Gallery" in Ottawa, the first gallery in the country devoted to contemporary Canadian photography.

She also produced countless exhibitions and audiovisual presentations, as well as many photographic books, such as Canada: A Year of the Land (1967), which won major awards for printing excellence, The Female Eye (1975), Canada (1975), which won the silver medal at the Leipzig International Book Fair, and Between Friends (1976), which won the gold medal at the Leipzig International Book Fair. After leaving the NFB, she has continued to organize photo exhibitions and to produce books, such as Canada with Love (1982). She has worked tirelessly to establish the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography of which she became its first executive director. The museum, situated in Ottawa, held its first exhibition in 1987. Monk received the Centennial Medal (1967) and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.