Celia Rabinovitch was born in Morden to Milton and Sheila Rabinovitch. Her family owned a local store on Stephen Street in the 1920s & 30s. Milton's cousin, Nick Yudell, lived in Winnipeg, but came to live with the Rabinovitch family for a time, and worked in the store.
At the age of twelve, Yudell was gifted a camera, starting a hobby that grew to a collection of over 300 pictures, until he left to serve in World War II as an RAF pilot in 1940. Unfortunately, Yudell never returned home as his plane was shot down, and the family received word he was presumed dead. The telegram, along with many of his self-portraits and life-like pictures of friends and family, adorn the walls of Morden's Pembina Hills Art Gallery in a rare exhibit opportunity.
Rabinovitch explained how the pictures became an exhibit, and why it's important to her for them to come home to Morden.
"It's very important to me this exhibition comes to this community in Morden, because Nick Yudell grew up here. He grew up with my father's family. My father's name was Milton Rabinovitch, and he had the establishment on Stephen Street called Rabinovitch Brothers. Nick Yudell's work is a great discovery. It was a surprise to me when I looked through the box my father showed me and asked me, 'These were Nicks, maybe you could do something with this.'"
She was encouraged by Morden's Ron and his sister Lenore Laverty to work with the Manitoba Museum to create the Lost Expressionist Exhibit featuring a wide variety of work and local people from here in Morden, Carman, and Winnipeg.
"Although we know a lot about the politics of the 1930s, say the rise of fascism in Europe, the Great Depression, pan handlers and hobos and poverty, we don't know what people actually did in their daily lives. These photographs show what people did for entertainment during their daily lives. One, they did dress up, they took photographs, they played music and they read. It's fairly obvious, although they worked hard, the pace of life didn't offer so many distractions."
Film was scarce in the 1930s, and multiple shots were not readily available. Yudell's work displays a lot of the cinematography and talent he used to capture images requiring a sense of timing. Like in the picture from 1934 featuring nurse Marion Vrooman, at a nurse's party, blowing a noise maker at exactly the same time Nick took the shot.
Rabinovitch said Nick was able to capture a variety of work: some local happenings like the Millhouse and Meat house fire, a stunt photo of his cousin on a telephone pole and people living in rural life influenced by the local movie theatre.
"They were able to see all the movies at the Kenmor theater. They were able to emulate some of the postures and gestures of movie actors or actresses, which are quite different than today. You can look at the photographs, and assume they were going to be clever with a snazzy quip, because that was the way people expressed humour in the 1930s."
Rabinovitch explained why people will enjoy the exhibit on display in Morden until November 4th.
"I think for people to see the world through his eyes, to see Morden in the 1920s & 30s, and to understand the role of young men like Nick Yudell, who enlisted in the RAF by 1940, to see what joy they had in life, to see how they participated with each other in rough housing, or in creating things."
Yudell was head of the model airplane association in Morden and later became an RAF pilot.
The rare look into everyday life in Morden almost one hundred years ago gives a snapshot of what people and life was like in a world between World Wars.
"I find that it's a time that's quite different than ours, and it was somewhat more idealistic, and also there was an unselfconscious emphasis on being authentic. People did not try to conceal who they were. They were straightforward, and you can sense that in the poses and the faces in the photographs. I find that to be one of the most treasured aspects of the exhibition, for me personally, to see the authenticity that's here."
A reception to open the exhibit took place Tuesday, October 3rd with Rabinovitch in attendance answering questions and talking about the exhibit.
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