If one picture is worth a thousand words, then most artists have a career output to rival even the most prolific of writers. In the case of aboriginal photographer Murray McKenzie, he was more of a biographer.
Born in Cumberland House, Sask., on March 16, 1927, with Cree and Métis ancestors, McKenzie contracted tuberculosis and was sent to a sanitarium at a young age. To keep him occupied and entertained while recuperating, his parents bought him a camera-and McKenzie took to it like a duck to water, taking photographs of his fellow sanitarium patients.
Photographs of his peers remained the backbone of McKenzie's work through his career, as he became one of the most well-known artists to ever come out of Northern Manitoba, and he did it by simply taking pictures of those around him.
McKenzie's daughter Gayle, one of his seven children, has said that her father "tried to capture the joy in peoples' emotions," and that is evident in all of his work. Even more impressive is that McKenzie reached the pinnacle of Manitoban photography despite being primarily self-taught-though he did take one correspondence course from the New York School of Photography in his youth, his photo education came almost exclusively from within.
Marcia Carroll, owner of the Precambrian Art Centre in Thompson, notes that McKenzie's art puts him in a unique niche, making it difficult to compare him to other artists. Bruce Ecker, a Thompson-based engineer, is another well-known artist and photographer who looks to incorporate local themes, though his work tends to focus more on scenery and landscapes.
Another comparison can be made to Gerald Kuehl. Carroll notes that although the Pinawa-born Kuehl prefers pencils to cameras, he is similar to McKenzie in that they both have people, especially Northern Manitobans, as their preferred subjects.
McKenzie's photographs have been displayed in galleries across North America, but most impressive is his designation as the first aboriginal to hold an exhibit in Europe-achieved in 1994 when he traveled to Munster, Germany, where his work was showcased at the Westphalian Museum. On this trip, McKenzie was accompanied by Bob Lowery, the longtime Thompson correspondent for the Winnipeg Free Press. The two collaborated on a 1982 book, titled The Unbeatable Breed: People and Events of Northern Manitoba. Lowery went to Germany because he had helped to rebuild the country after the Second World War, picking up enough German in the process that he was able to act as a translator for McKenzie.
Raised in The Pas, and based for much of his life in Thompson, McKenzie was a regular freelancer for the Winnipeg Free Press, often called upon when they needed a picture from the North. His pictures also appeared in outlets including the Toronto Star and TIME magazine. His most famous photograph is almost certainly that of Jaime Constant, a smiling then-four-year-old girl. That photo was later used in a national campaign by the Canadian Cancer Society.
Several of McKenzie's photographs are on display at Clarke's Pharmacy in the Thompson Plaza. Sometime after 2000, McKenzie offered some of his work as an alternative payment for medications from pharmacy owner Darren King, and after some bartering in the best long-standing Northern tradition, the deal was complete. Not long after, McKenzie moved to a long-term care home in Winnipeg, where he died in April 2007.
