A Photographer's View of Owen Sound: Photographs by Gerry McDonald from 1955 to 1974

A door to the past opens with this book, a collection of photographs taken by Gerry McDonald, a professional "shooter" who grew up in Owen Sound with a camera in his hand. His many images mirror a city in transition, struggling to recover from the Second World War, economically depressed but still vibrant. I had just begun writing for the local newspaper when I met Gerry in the early 1970s. BY then, this freelance photographer had shot thousands of rolls of film, both for clients and his own personal pleasure. Tragically, Gerry McDonald had died in a car accident at the age of 38 in 1974. Many further decades of photographic work were lost with his passing. Fortunately McDonald's negatives were carefully preserved by Peter Ciokan of Foto Art. And now, a selection of them has been gathered in this volume, a gift to Owen Sound as it was a half-century ago.

- from the Foreward by Andrew Armitage