In the late 1980’s, I was approached by a friend, Gabriel Assoignon, who had come by some glass plate negatives from an amateur photographer who had lived in the Livingstone municipality near Pelly Sk. The photographer’s name was Peter Bloudoff and in 1994 I produced an exhibit of his photographs titled, “A Doukhobor Camera”, that was shown at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg. Peter Bloudoff was from the village of Kamenka, closer to Pelly Sk. The entire collection and research materials are now in the holdings of the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
The photographs in this collection are of a Doukhobor prayer house at the former site of Oospennie village (pronounced, I am told, Oose-pen-yeh), part of the Thunderhill colony. The bricks for the building were made less than 5 kms from the village site, at what is now the site of the Assoignon farm. These photographs were not used in the exhibit, but were part of the research donated to the Archives. I understand that the building is no longer standing.
Apologies for the repetitive imagery between the b&w and colour photographs.
Notes … Clicking on an image will give you a full screen view. Comment section comments may not be posted immediately but are appreciated, do not panic. Contact and subscription information is at the bottom of the home page.
Sign-up to receive notifications for my photo exhibits and my “On the Day” blog. You will receive no spam and you can unsubscribe at any time.
2 Responses
How great that you were able to document this building before it disappeared!
Thank you for the wonderful photos very informative part of our heritage.