Exploring the Lens: Arthur Erickson’s Travel Diaries Transformed into Art

Exhibited at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal from November 14, 2024– March 16, 2025, Being There: Photography in Arthur Erickson’s Early Travel Diaries utilizes the CCA’s rich collection to explore Erickson’s conviction that architecture needs to be experienced for true comprehension, illuminating how his interactions with individuals, environments, landscapes, and concepts during his initial journeys in Europe and North Africa from 1950 to 1952, and in Asia in 1961, influenced his early residential designs and his later path as an architect.

Made up of field notes, travel journals, and letters that have not been showcased before, along with Erickson’s drawings and newly digitized images, Being There fashions a vibrant narrative of his training as an architect, traversing various themes and locations to explore his distinct travel approach and his insightful awareness of site and climatic factors. A key feature of the exhibition is his correspondence from Japan, Cambodia, and Bali, which consists of a collection of remarkable letters addressed to his former educator and guide, the renowned Canadian artist Gordon Webber.

Being There: Photography in Arthur Erickson’s Early Travel Diaries
open until 16 March 2025.
Canadian Centre for Architecture
1920 Baile St.
Montreal, Quebec H3H 1R4, Canada