Even though it's one of the great cities of North America and the largest in Canada, Toronto isn't necessarily well-known as an incubator of noteworthy photographers. To get a good picture of the city's photographic family tree you need to do just a little digging.While several studios are known to have flourished in the city's downtown area in the early-to-mid 19th Century the output of these pioneers has sadly been lost. The first Toronto photographer still remembered today who gained notice for his craft was one Eli J. Palmer. Palmer won an Honorable Mention at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 and worked in Toronto from the late 1840's until around 1870. He produced portraits as well as cartes de visite, small scenic cardboard-backed images that were the precursors of the modern picture postcard.From the late 1850's onward a huge figure in Toronto photography and indeed for all of Canada and parts of the Northeastern United States was the prodigious William Notman. Though he was a native of Scotland and lived in Montreal, Notman was so successful he opened studios in various cities, Toronto included. Notman trained all the shooters at these studios and his style of portraiture was influential for many decades. He often made 'composite photographs' in which various images taken in a studio were combined on a pre-drawn background and then retouched and rephotographed to look as polished as possible.By 1878 F.W. Micklethwaite had set up shop and would soon become the quintessential visual documentor of Toronto cityscapes and vistas in the era around the turn of the century. Micklethwaite ran a successful commercial photography business that was passed on through his family for two generations. He was also well-known for his shots of the Muskoka region, an upscale vacation area to the north of the city.For more info,Please visit montreal photographer Micklethwaite's work is important enough that it is now largely held by the Canada and Toronto archives; some of his output can also be viewed online.Jumping toward the middle 1900's, long-time Toronto resident Richard Harrington gained world acknowledgment for his images of Canadian Inuit and their struggle for survival during the waning days of their nomadic culture. Born in Germany, Harrington first worked in Toronto as an X-ray technician before making the jump to freelance photography. His work was featured at the Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art, as well as in Life magazine and in several books. Richard Harrington lived until the age of 94, dying in 2005 and bridging the gap right into the current century and the present day.Information on this can be found at this site