John McQuarrie is an Ottawa-based photographer whose major clients have included 
Coors, Marlboro, McDonnell-Douglas and Lockheed.  But his real passion is producing coffee table books.
To review some of the book content starting with TORONTO, SPIRIT OF PLACE, click on one of the Covers.
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In the 1820s, when the town of Almonte did not exist in any real way, the first two mills were built by Daniel Shipman to fulfill the requirement of a land grant from the Crown, to which he obtained patent in 1830.  These buildings were a sawmill, where the Old Town Hall currently stands, and a grist mill on the site of 7 Mill Street, repurposed as a condominium.  Presumably a dirt track linked the two along the approximate line of Mill Street today, but there was essentially nothing else around but a lot of forest and the roaring Mississippi. A contemporary bird's eye's view, with the aid of a morning fog revealing the course of the river hidden beneath, would have looked very much like this in the 1820s and therein lies a tale!

John McQuarrie’s photographs throughout this book are extraordinary. His use of new photography techniques allows us to view familiar landscapes and structures from different perspectives enabling a better appreciation of what makes Prince Edward County so attractive.
   His book serves as a glorious appreciation of Prince Edward County in words and pictures. It captures in one volume so much of what we appreciate here– our history, heritage and way of life; our businesses, arts and culture; our scenic landscapes; and our people.
  The contributions by local writers, including Steve Campbell, Peter Lockyer, Orland French, Ian Robertson, and George Inrig, aid in our understanding of his images and speak to much of what makes The County unique.
   It is all those things, so wonderfully articulated on these pages, that allow residents and visitors alike to proclaim that Prince Edward County is not just a County; it is The County.  Extract from the Foreword by ​Mayor Steve Ferguson
     Publisher's Note: This book and the other Tagona Press 'Four Season Ontario' series works can be obtained at www.tagonapress.com or through Tagona's national distributor, Dundurn Press. The Four Season County images used in Picton - Spirit of Place are four low resolution samples scanned from the 90 high resolution, full page images created by Prince Edward Photographers Peggy DeWitt, Rob Garden, Phil Norton, and Jason Pettit.​

This book, Toronto Spirit of Place captures that incredible transformation over and over again through remarkable photography drawn from the past and the present. It puts modern day Toronto on display in a way its people rarely appreciate and for those who aren't lucky enough to live here, it offers a glimpse into history and a stunning portrait of today. 
     A reader is struck by the heritage portrayed in the photos and the history, heritage which doesn't exist anymore except in books like this. The places we have preserved whether the Flatiron Building, Old City Hall or Campbell House remind us of what could have been, not everywhere, but in more places. And hopefully these words and photos motivate us to do a better job of protecting and preserving as the years pass.
     Toronto Spirit of Place shows and tells us all about the place, where it came from and where it is now. I hope it will also cause many readers to give some thought to where it is going, and to the future of not only the place, but the people who live here. Because it is the people, diverse as they are, who make this historic and beautiful place remarkable by any standard.                                                                                                                                          --Mayor John Tory

Places you know and are familiar with, roadways you have travelled, sidewalks, parks and pathways you have strolled, waterways you have paddled, buildings you have visited, maybe even the one you live, work, shop, worship or study in—locales you are familiar with from your ‘ground’s-eye view.’ Now see them in an entirely new way through the bird’s-eye views hidden between the covers of the book you hold in your hands.
     The camera came along by the middle of the 19th century—preceding the airplane—so our first elevated, 
photographic views of the emerging capital will be from a perch atop the old Victoria Tower on the original Parliament building, before Confederation. 
    Following the Silver Dart, the Wright Brothers and the Great War, the newly minted (1924) Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) began aerial photography of Canada in earnest, and our first truly aerial photographic views date from the late 1920’s.
      The gifts these early aerial artists left us provide a fascinating flight through time. So please fasten your seat belts and enjoy the aerial adventure!

                     

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He struck a match and transformed the city’s economy. She penned a hit song that redefined rock music for women. They defied bigotry and — backed by hundreds of mothers wielding placards and hatpins — took a courageous stand for French-language rights. Some blazed trails for black, Chinese and Vietnamese newcomers. Another designed Canada’s ultimate architectural jewel on the Ottawa River shore, a fitting tribute to his Indigenous ancestors. And one fellow carved a canal in the wilderness and gave Canada its future seat of government. 
     Capital Builders is filled with stories about women and men whose lives and legacies have shaped the capital, and often the world well beyond it. Originally published as a weekly series by the Ottawa Citizen to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, the stories are collected here in collaboration with John McQuarrie, the well-known Ottawa publisher of several beautifully illustrated books. Embracing the city’s distant past and its more recent evolution, Capital Builders reminds us that the creation of Ottawa is still unfolding.  
– History writer Randy Boswell 
    teaches journalism at Carleton University.

                    

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Here is Ottawa as you have never seen her before. 
You will be present at her birth in the wilderness and, from the comfort of your favourite chair, watch her growth through two centuries. 
An intimate portrait of many of the places that define the Capital, her businesses, culture, recreation, architecture, parks, homes, schools, transportation systems and people – evolving from virgin forest to thriving city.






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Canadians have long had a fascination with the quest for our ‘Canadian Identity’. For most of these 150 years many have tried to put their finger on it, to come up with a magic phrase that finally encapsulates who we are. But as the decades roll on, as the population grows and diversifies, as more and more layers are added, the "answer" becomes more and more elusive. While a very few have gotten close enough to nibble around the edges, perhaps Roy MacGregor has most eloquently summed up the hopelessness of the pursuit when he reflected on the difficulty of getting a grasp of the place; “It is a country you can only taste. And for a good many of us, all that does is increase the appetite for more.”
     And then there was this; “A friend once said, almost as a joke, that “Canada is the painting that Tom Thomson never finished.” I like the sentiment expressed there. The final strokes forever out of reach."
      How could you ever expect to properly capture such a country? Can you even try to talk about a – capital ‘A,’ one, single, specific – Canadian when the personality you are trying to define speaks two official languages, hundreds of other tongues, and is made up of faces in shapes and colours more varied than in any other country in the world? How can it be that a country so vast and so blessed with natural resources could shift from a place where four out of every five lived on the land to a place where four out of five now live in cities – all in a time frame so short there are Canadians alive who have lived in both realities?”
 – Roy MacGregor
   
                 
                                                                                                       
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​The history of Boston plays a central role in the American story. In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the town, which quickly became the political, commercial, financial, religious and educational center of the New England region.        
       Here is Boston as you have never seen her before. You will be present at her birth in the wilderness and from the comfort of your favourite chair, witness her growth through almost four centuries – an intimate portrait of many of the places and events that define the city, her businesses, culture, recreation, architecture, parks and people evolving from virgin forest to thriving city

                                        
             Barnes & Noble ~ Amazon ~ Midpoint 
                               Andover Bookstore, Andover
                      The Book Rack, Newburyport
                  Spirit of '76 Bookstore, Marblehead
                                  Hugo Bookstores   

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Trademark of Pavilion Books Holdings Limited used under licence by
​ [John McQuarrie, John McQuarrie Photography and all associated and related companies and  subsidiaries].