Forgotten Not Lost: Rediscovering the Life and Work of Minna Keene (1859-1943) at the Image Centre

During her lifetime, Minna Keene (1859-1943) was a celebrated pictorialist and studio photographer, and one of the first women admitted as a fellow to the Royal Photographic Society (RPS). Keene maintained several photographic studios trans-nationally, including in South Africa between 1903 and 1913, and Montreal, Toronto and Oakville from 1913 until 1943. Yet, after her death, Keene’s work was forgotten. Few scholars studied Keene’s career and her photographs disappeared from both public and photo-historical view. In 2021, The Image Centre in Toronto announced the acquisition of the Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection. Using this never-before-seen material, this thesis constructs the first comprehensive biography on Keene, including a chronology detailing her many achievements throughout her career, and analyzes the scope and content of a collection spanning approximately 3,864 objects attributed to Keene. This approach lays the foundation for future researchers to examine Keene’s diverse oeuvre at The Image Centre.