From early reports of the invention to its wide application during World War I, photography created anticipation and participation in the modern world. A History of Photography in Canada: Volume 1 captures this phenomenon by looking at hundreds of early photographs and by listening to the chords they struck in the collective imagination.

Martha Langford's fascination with Canadian photography in all its aspects spans over fifty years as a curator, critic, historian, theorist, museum founder, and from 2011 to 2025, research chair and director of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University. She is the co-editor of Photogenic Montreal: Activisms and Archives in a Post-Industrial City. She lives in Montreal.