Bradshaw Photos: Records or Pieces of Art

by Palma Berger

Kennedy Bradshaw had left his native Cornwall, England and journeyed to Keno City in the Yukon to take up employment as a mechanic there in 1952. He upgraded his skills in the maintenance area, but he also took up photography. Using 35 mm Kodachrome film he photographed Keno City and workers at home, at work and at recreation. These remarkable records of that time in Keno, and at the Bear Creek compound near Dawson City, are now on show at the Odd Gallery in Dawson City.

One can debate whether they are just records or truly pieces of art. This self taught photographer had such an eye for composition, texture, and realism that they must be considered art.

They hold the attention of other photographers, but they also catch the eye of Dawson residents of a certain age as they recognize a face or place.

This calendar was part of the Bradshaw exhibit at the ODD Gallery.

Looking at the photos of some young lads on opening night, made one look again. Wasn’t that Tommy Nakashima? Tommy was approached to verify this. Yes, it was himself and the two young boys with him are his brothers. He could also identify a person in the photo below as being Marlene Olsen.

Frank Lidstone is identified.

Gene and Don Neff recalled the era well. John Dines looked at the perfectly composed photo of a bunkhouse kitchen and eating area and recalled how, as alter boy he travelled with Father Poulet to conduct mass at the outlying camps of the Gold Company around Dawson. They were always served a good meal in one of these kitchens. The heavy duty china plates, the enamel sugar container and mugs all add a pattern to the composition.

But there is also the artistic side.

The photo of workers in one of the buildings in their rough clothes, hard hats and hands darkened by the materials with which they worked, showed also the rough timber that was used for supports.

There was also a romantic side to his photography. The girl sitting on the floor with her circular skirt spread out around her, has the teal blue of the skirt reflected in the lighter blue of the painted chairs in the background.

There are indoor scenes of homes. These show the attempts by the owners of adding colour and interest to their lives. The wall paper is very different to what we would have today. In another the cushion reads ‘Mother’ and between the two seated men in their checked shirts on a small table stands a photo of a very young child. The door knob is round and well worn, and is set in a patterned piece of metal.

As Valerie Salez said, “I love discovering all the details in these photos”. A kitchen scene records not only the wooden bench for chair and the red checked ‘plastic’ table cloth, but also that there is the colour orange repeated in painted flowers on canisters, drawers, wall paper and curtains.

One visitor to the show remarked that on first glance at the profile of a man in a suit, she mistook for a painting at first, as the texture of the wall and the subtle shadows have been caught so well.

The photo of the empty Keno Hotel bar shows the simple shaped plastic chairs with their aluminum supports, and with the light coming in from the side giving it all a surrealistic effect.

The large photo of Keno City with the tiny buildings against the huge dark mountain looming behind it gives a feeling of threat. The huge jagged peaks of the snow capped mountain appearing behind the mountain adds to the feeling of menace.

But they socialized as we do today. Young teens hang out on the dock of an old building in summer. Boys and their dads are fishing near Mayo. There are bar scenes. There is a picnic. Sure enough there is the ‘Yukon Jug’, the opened can of carnation milk. Many folk recall the grocery products of that time.

It is also a record of the manner of dressing in the fifties. The women’s clothing naturally, but also the boys’. Not one of the lads are wearing sneakers. When did baseball caps come into fashion? The teens wear a sailor’s cap or tie a shirt around the head to keep out the sun, but not one baseball cap.

These photos are dated as 1955, but a Caley calender has a 1950 date on it. But then they kept other pictures that had pleased them.

My favourite photo is of looking into the kitchen from the living room. The near wall has an ochre coloured wall paper with flowers, the curtains are dark greenish with patterns of trees, the linoleum is checkered, and against these patterns fighting for attention the stark simple white of an oil cooking stove can be seen in the kitchen.

Torrie Hunter tries to scare off the roving bear in Joe and Marlene Braga’s yard. Photo by Romy Jansen

Bear Killed in Dawson Residential Area

by Dan Davidson

An afternoon stroll on Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Dawson ended in tragedy for a female black bear who wouldn’t stay away on Monday afternoon in Dawson.

Torrie Hunter (Acting Manager, Field Operations North) says he got reports of the bear, which seemed to be taking a leisurely tour of the neighborhood, around 1:15 that afternoon.

Hunter first saw the bear in behind Robert Service’s Cabin on Eighth Avenue, and it continued north along the trail behind, visiting the property of local dentist Helmut Schoener and others along Eighth.

“From there I followed it and it went up onto the pole line and I tried to scare it away with a few rubber slugs and cracker shells.”

The pole line leads off Eighth Avenue and straight up the hill to the Northwestel site a quarter of the way up the Dome. Heading off in that direction would have been normal for the bear, but this one looped around and entered the lane in back of Seventh Avenue.

Along Seventh she was seen around several houses. Andrea Gould reported seeing her in between the Gould and Davidson homes at some point, but she ended up farther north and in the yard of Joe and Marlene Braga.

“That’s where I saw it in Joe Braga’s yard,” Hunter said, “and that’s where she (Romy Jansen) got the pictures with me standing looking at the bear. I was waving at Romy to get out of the way because I was going to take a shot at it.”

By this time the bear was beginning to move into the nuisance category.

The bear romped through several more yards along Seventh, including in front of Hunter’s house before seeming to head into the bush above Jansen’s house.

“I said, ‘Well, if it keeps going up over the Dome it’s going to be fine.’ But then it turned and popped out again and was starting to walk down the Dome Road ) Mary Mcleod Road) towards us.”

Normal bear behavior would have been to retreat into the bush, but this one had now come back twice, even though it appeared to be well fed. It was showing little fear of the human activity around it, which by this time included the RCMP.

Hunter and the RCMP chased it up and into the bush and Hunter ran in and shot it.

“It took two shots from a shotgun with slugs, which I’m sure the whole town heard because I could hear it echoing across the valley.”

The bear was a female brown black bear, about five years old and around 110 to 120 pounds. It seemed to be in good shape.

“It was adult with lots of fat on it and it was eating rose hips ... there’s lot sin back of the street.”

Sadly, it would not yield or “give way” as they say in the trade.

“If it had taken off running and gone over the Dome it’d be a live bear, but unfortunately it just wanted to keep coming back into town.”

Hunter assumes the bear had been following its food and had been around the town for long enough to get used to tolerating people. The trouble comes when a bear like this starts going into yards. At that point it may switch to eating garbage and become a danger to people and their pets.

Hunter says he always hates to do this sort of thing, but adds “I don’t need anybody getting chewed.”

This bear had clearly lost its fear of people.