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Like the bridges whose construction he was renowned for documenting, Otto Landauer's career as a photographer in British Columbia spanned decades. In 1985, the Jewish Historical Society of British Columbia (JHSBC) was fortunate to acquire, from Landauer's wife Barbara, a collection of approximately 30,000 photographs that Landauer had both taken and acquired since he became proprietor and principal photographer of Leonard Frank Photo Studios in 1946. Today, the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia (JMABC), governed by the JHSBC, considers this collection, part of the Leonard Frank Photo Studio fonds, to be one of its most significant. Extensive research on Landauer and Leonard Frank Photo Studio has been conducted by Founding President and Historian Emeritus of the JHSBC, Cyril E. Leonoff, for his book Bridges of Light, which was published by Talon Books in 1997.
The majority of the Landauer collection is represented by photographs that document post-war construction in Vancouver. It may, therefore, seem an odd collection to be held by an institution whose mandate is to collect, preserve, and make available for research the history of the Jewish people of British Columbia. Landauer was, however, of German Jewish origin, as was Leonard Frank, his...