Frank, Leonard

• Frank, Leonhard Juda

Leonhard Juda Frank, known as Leonard Frank, was a leading commercial/industrial photographer in Vancouver and was the official photographer for the Vancouver Board of Trade. He was born on July 3, 1870 in Berne, Germany to a German Jewish family, the son of one of Germany's earliest professional photographers. In 1892, he was struck with gold fever and emigrated to San Francisco, CA. He relocated to Victoria, BC, where he found employment with Simon Leiser & Co., a merchandising firm. By 1896, he was sent as a clerk to the company's general store in Wellington, BC not far from Nanaimo. After two years, he moved to Port Alberni, BC on Vancouver Island with the intention to prospect for gold. Frank never discovered gold, but by chance won a raffle prize of a camera which sparked his lifelong passion. While managing a general store in Port Alberi with his brother, Bernard, and continuing to prospect, Frank took pictures of the surrounding country until photography became his chosen profession. Having found buyers for some of his images, he decided on photography as a career. His pictures supplemented his income from guiding hunting, exploration, and tourist parties. Frank took a renowned picture of ptarmigans, at 5,500 feet elevation, which was exhibited in 1910 at the Sportsmen's Show in Vienna. Beginning about 1907, Frank operated a photographic studio next to the Alberni Pioneer News building, where he sometimes found work as a reporter. During the years 1907 to 1909, Frank photographed the extent of Vancouver Island. In the summer of 1909 he operated a gasoline launch on Great Central Lake, for the transport of touring parties. His reputation was now spreading to international locales. Besides Vienna, he had exhibits in London and Glasgow, and his logging photographs were singled out for praise. He started to win contracts from timber and mining companies, beginning his career as an industrial photographer. In 1910, Frank published a book of Alberni views. He was usually present to record any local historical event, such as the arrival of the first passenger train of the E&N Railway to arrive in Port Alberni in 1911. The following year, he was assigned as the official photographer of the newly created Strathcona Provincial Park. An economic downturn in the Port Alberni district started in November 1913, and coupled with anti-German sentiment at the outbreak of the First World War, Frank decided to leave Port Alberni. In January 1917, Frank was arrested on the charge by a local family of indecent assault against a child of "tender years". He was taken to Nanaimo and later released on bail. His three hour trial, on February 15, 1917, resulted in an acquittal. In 1917, Frank moved to Vancouver and quickly became the leading commercial/industrial photographer in the city. Frank's photographs form a unique document of Vancouver and British Columbia's history between the wars. He partnered in 1918 with another photographer, Orville J. Rognon, to form the Commercial Photo Company. The pair sought out commercial work, and freelanced for the Vancouver Daily Province, the Vancouver Sun, and other publications. Frank obtained assignments from the City of Vancouver publicity department, and became a promoter of the city. Orville Rognon left the firm in 1919. Frank relocated to Granville Street, where the firm remained until 1953. His brother, Bernard, took over the bookkeeping role, and a darkroom operator, Albert W. Urquart, was hired. He was frequently commissioned to photograph for both the provincial and federal governments, as well as being the official photographer for the Vancouver Board of Trade and Canadian Pacific Rail He also took many photographs of the Royal Family, presidential visits, and other celebrities. In 1938, one of his images appeared on a Canadian 50 cent stamp. Taken in 1934, it depicted a view of Burrard Inlet. Frank was further honoured in 1939 to execute all the enlargements and transparencies for the British Columbia exhibit at the San Francisco World's Fair. In 1942, his logging scenes illustrated Robert Swanson's poetry chapbook, Rhymes of a Western Logger. The Frank brothers kept in contact with their German family overseas. During World War II, with the exception of a sister, Mrs. Hertz, and a niece, their relatives perished in the Holocaust. Frank was an associate member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, the first in Vancouverite to receive the coveted award. He passed away in h is sleep on February 23, 1944 in Vancouver. Bernard Frank carried on as interim manager until he died suddenly on February 20, 1946. The Frank brothers are buried in the Schara Tzedeck cemetery in New Westminster, BC. The new owner of Leonard Frank photos became Otto Landauer, a Jewish refugee who continued the commercial aspect of the firm. The Vancouver Public Library obtained a significant collection of Frank's glass plates in 1965. Four years later, they featured a display of 325 prints, largely made up from Frank's images. His photographs are also found at the British Columbia Archives, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the BC and Yukon Chamber of Mines, the University of British Columbia Special Collections, and the Alberni Valley Museum. Some of Frank's images were shown at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1976 as part of the exhibit "Eleven Early British Columbia Photographers, 1890-1940". Five years after Landauer's death in 1980, the Jewish Historical Society of British Columbia purchased a substantial body of work for both Landauer and Frank. A retrospective was held in 1986, at the Shalom Gallery of the Vancouver Jewish Community Centre. In 1989, a collection of 75 of Frank's forest industry photographs was exhibited at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre during the annual truck logger's convention. These pictures are now permanently displayed at the British Columbia Forest Museum in Duncan, BC. In 1999, Frank was the subject of a television program produced by White Pine Pictures.

Berne, Germany
San Francisco, CA
Victoria, BC
Wellington, BC
Port Alberni, BC
Vancouver

Commercial photographer
Industrial photographer
Prospector
Store manager

RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.

Catalogued May 2022.

1) Archival material
2) http://www.vpl.ca/frank/biography.html
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Frank_(photographer)