Thelma Pepper 1920-2020

Thelma Pepper receiving the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in Regina in May 2018. Photo courtesy Gordon Pepper.

I guess if you are going to write about 98-year-old photographers, you're going to have to swallow some hard news sooner rather than later. I'm sorry to report that Thelma Pepper died.

She had a reasonably long 40-year career as an active photographer...which only began when she was 60. "Life really begins for a lot of people at 60," she said.

She had a sharp interest in politics and especially in people. She was a photographer of Saskatchewan, the Canadian province smack dab in the middle of the country, due north of Montana and the Dakotas—the middle of the three "prairie provinces" and the only Canadian province without any natural boundary (the Canadian Rockies provide the Southwestern border of Alberta). Born in Nova Scotia, she arrived in Saskatchewan in 1947, and later took up her Rolleiflex TLR with the intention of documenting the stories of "forgotten" women of Saskatchewan's vast plains. She also had a secondary interest in the province's landscapes, making multiples created by patching together different frames—panoramas with the "bones showing," you might say. You can see a few of those here.

It's gratifying that she received so much recognition from her province. She received the lifetime achievement award for her photography at the Lieutenant Governor's Arts Awards in 2018, and was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2018.

A new biography of her is called Thelma: A Life in Pictures. Another book comes up on Amazon called PROOF: Did You Like That Photograph? How Passion and Creativity Can Lead To A New Life After 60—The Life and Times of Thelma Pepper, but I'm not sure that one exists; it's not available on Amazon and it doesn't come up in searches on Abebooks or eBay, which puts it pretty far out on the edges.

A book called Human Touch, containing "50 portrait images selected from Thelma Pepper’s entire body of work of 2,350 printed photographs," is apparently mainly sold locally in Saskatoon. You can also find it online here.

Anyway, I've liked what I could see of her. "She touched and inspired everyone she met. She loved talking to people, learning about them, and ultimately, in her own quiet and confident way, making all she met feel better about themselves and their own lives," her son Gordon told the CBC.

It might be that her great age helped her work rise above the waves, but in another sense you could say she died young.

Mike
(Thanks to Phil Hall)

From Gordon Pepper: "Thank you very much for the wonderful article on my mother Thelma Pepper. My mother loved meeting and learning about the people she met, and expressed this though her photography. One of her last things she said to me, about a month ago, was her wish that some day Canada would have a national portrait gallery. She believed that portrait photography was one of the meaningful ways of (artistically) understanding a certain place and time—through its people. Thank you again."

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Lesley T: "Thank you. What a lovely story, and what wonderful photographs. Older people are sometimes discouraged from starting something new, but sometimes the new experience gives purpose to one's life and produces something marvelous."

Michel Hardy-Vallée: "There are so many Canadian photographers that don't get much exposure outside of the country. I'm glad to discover Thelma Pepper; I didn't know her. Yousuf Karsh 'of Ottawa' has stolen the thunder, but here's a few, taken randomly: Sam Tata, Gabor Szilasi, Margaret Watkins, John Max, Alex Henderson, Guy Borremans, Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, Michel Campeau, Jeff Wall (yes), William Notman, Donigan Cumming, Michael Flomen, Antoine Desilets, Evergon, Evariste Desparois, Michel Campeau, Sylvain P. Cousineau, Normand Rajotte, Jean Lauzon, Dave Heath, Serge Jongué, Nina Raginsky, Judith Eglington, Benoit Aquin, John Vanderpant, Julie Doiron, Raymonde April, Roloff Beny, Geneviève Cadieux, Fred Herzog, Shin Sugino, and I could go on...."

Gary Nylander: "So sorry to hear of Thelma Pepper's passing. I was first introduced to her photography from the CBC article from a couple of years ago. A fine photographer she was and an even finer human being."

Richard Parkin: "David Hockney used 'joiners' to describe composites 'with the bones showing.' Seems a useful word to me."

Terry Burnes: "I'm a descendant of prairie people. They're resilient. The prairie and its people are a fascinating subject to me. The great North American landscape, in my opinion, is hard to capture well. And the stories there are are about stalwart people in a difficult land. This reminds of another female photographer whose story I find compelling, Evelyn Cameron, who documented early prairie life in eastern Montana, no simple undertaking."

Evelyn Cameron, photographer (MHS Photograph Archives, Helena, Montana)

Mike replies: "Cameron covered a lot of ground on horseback to take her photographs. In order to find subjects, she often rode 20 to 30 miles round-trip carrying her 9-pound camera tied to her waist and her wooden tripod in a gun scabbard. Virtually all her work was done in the field because she did not operate a portrait studio. She was tough, dedicated, and loved her work."

That's from Evelyn Cameron, Montana's Frontier Photographer by Kristi Hager. The picture above was taken the year after Thelma Pepper was born.

Comments

[Bill Pearce]

Mike,

Once again you have pushed a long lost button in my brain.Panos with "the bones showing" is a new term to me, but making those was something we infrequently did in the olden days of film. I liked better what I got with my xPan but these could be fun.

Ye who have grown up with nothing but digital and computers and software can;t even begin to realize what you missed. I feel so sad for those of you who never had to shoot an NCAA regional basketball game with a Nikon F with standard prism, no motor and only a 35/2 and a 50/3.5 macro. And I spit on today's idiots that find two card slots a requirement. Ever shoot basketball with nothing more than a pocket full of 36 ex rolls of Tri-x? Those of us who did never found that crippling.

[Mark Layne]

Hi Mike

Back in 1978 I did some printing work for a gentleman named Ralph Pepper.
When Ralph retired he walked into my office and presented me with his Rolleiflex stuff which I mostly still have
Mark Layne Nova Scotia

[Stan B.]

At 60, I felt as if I just got started despite already practicing for 40 yrs- to see what she accomplished at her late start is both impressive and inspiring.

[Speed]

Mike wrote, "She also had a secondary interest in the province's landscapes, making multiples created by patching together different frames—panoramas with the 'bones showing' you might say."

These panoramas are a great example of why we should all be conscious of ...

Dans ses écrits, un sage Italien
Dit que le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.

(In his writings, a wise Italian
says that the best is the enemy of the good)"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good

How many of us have images in our computers or file cabinets that need just a little more work which they will never receive? I certainly do. They will be lost forever.

[Jim Arthur]

Speaking of talented Canadians, I just learned that Neil Young Archives (NYA) is free to everyone through the end of the year via the NYA desktop site. This couldn’t be better timing for me since I took a queue from Mike’s Pool Hall and treated myself for the coming winter lockdown. In my case I upped my audio game in a couple of inexpensive ways with one being a new Audioengine N22 desktop amp to pair with my “old” Denon SC-M37’s. I’m a very happy boy.

---------------
Neil Young Archives Instagram page from the 11th.

Greetings
We are doing well here and feeling good. We hope you are well too. Our hearts go out to all those families touched. We want you to enjoy what we have to share at NYA.

Through the holidays NYA will be available for free to everyone on our desktop site.

Lots of Love,

Neil & NYA
---------------

[David Hamilton]

Just a correction on Michel Hardy-Vallée‘s post above. I believe he meant Moe Doiron who was a photographer at a number of newspapers in Toronto.

[John]

Forty years with what appears to be one camera with a fixed lens. A very sensible lady.