Tag Archives: Montreal

While I was filing my latest negatives I chanced to take a look at the first page of my files. I decided to scan that film, which I shot in 1970 in Montreal. There among other things were pictures of two different domes, built 120 years apart. The first was the Bonsecours Market, c. 1847, a building that was not only a market but briefly the Parliament of Canada.

Fortunately this building was saved from demolition in the 1960’s. Countless other treasure like it were demolished to make room for atrocious apartment buildings, etc. Another world class marvel was this:

The 1967 Montreal World’s Fair was the greatest fair ever held, if you count the attendance; over 50,000,000 visitors! I was there, lucky for me, and visited almost everything, including this building, the American pavilion. It was designed by Bucky Fuller, and is the largest and most spectacular dome of its kind ever built, and is still in existence – minus the acrylic skin, which burned off. The structure survived. They were planning to dismantle this one too, but somehow it was saved. I recall the fact that if they were to raise the temperature several degrees inside, the whole thing would have easily floated away like a hot air balloon.

Film: Kodak Tri-X 400, developed by me in unknown developer, probably Kodak D76 powder.

Camera: Minolta SRT 101, Rokkor PF 55/1.7