Fernie & Elk Valley Culture Guide Issue 6 - Fall 2017 | Page 4

A Vision for Fernie's future –
J F Spalding
When Joseph Frederick Spalding
arrived in Fernie in 1904 the town
was just six years old with a population
of 1,400. He was a 27-year-old
photographer from London, likely
seeking the landscapes that would make
him famous through his art. Over the
next 22 years, Spalding chronicled
the life of a burgeoning mining town,
including the heyday 1910's when the
population ballooned to over 6,000.
His photographs meticulously portray
the pride, prosperity, and poverty that
defined Fernie in its early years. On
the wide boulevard of 2nd Avenue he
captured the Edwardian elegance that
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belies the town's humble stature. On
the railway, in the forests, on the river,
and in the mines, he photographed
men working, building, and forging the
future. Spalding’s pictures tell the story
of the birth of a community and how
society—elephants and all—developed
in this far-flung corner of the Canadian
promised land.
Spalding brought with him a small
photography business when he arrived,
and in 1905 bought an established
studio from A.W. Prest. He worked
hard to offer every photographic
service possible including portraiture
with ‘fancy lighting’, postcard images