Frugal Film Project – August 2024 – Jack of All Trades (McMaster of None)

In all fairness, McMaster University is an excellent institution but the title came to me as a bit of joke and play on the phrase, Jack of All Trades, Master of None. I honestly had other plans for August’s roll in the Frugal Film Project but due to various scheduling difficulties I found myself in the middle of the month without having shot the roll. Now I usually get the roll done as early as I can so that I have time to develop, scan and write. But life happens, plans change, and I ended up needing to get the roll done. So rather than try and shoehorn it in on a weekend and shoot something boring I decided to explore the McMaster University Campus in Hamilton, Ontario. The trip in August was not my first time visiting the campus, but it certainly was the first time exploring McMaster. I went to a Doors Open event here in 2010 and also went for a job interview shortly after graduating, but this was my first real time checking out the campus as a whole.

McMaster University does not even have its start in Hamilton and has a far richer history than I thought. Today’s University started not in Hamilton but in Toronto. It was formed out of a series of educational initiatives from the Baptist church, which began in the 1830s. In 1881, the Toronto Baptist College opened near the intersection of Avenue Road and Bloor Street; the building was a beautiful Gothic Revival building designed by the noted church architecture firm Langley, Langley and Burke. After the death of noted Canadian senator William McMaster, also the first president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, a substantial sum was left to be used as an endowment to create a university. The Toronto Baptist College would receive the bequest and, in 1887, receive Royal Accent to become McMaster University. The University focused mainly on Arts and theology degrees and received all its funding from the Baptist Convention of Ontario & Quebec as a place of learning for clergy and church adherents. The school proved popular and, by the early 20th Century, began to suffer space issues, in 1909 a student suggested that the school move to Hamilton; the offhand remark would be taken seriously in 1911, and in the 1920s, the Chamber of Commerce in Hamilton began actively campaigning to relocate the University to the city. The alternative would be to have McMaster absorbed into the University of Toronto. However, with 1.5 million from the church, an additional 500,000 from citizens of Hamilton, and land transferred from the Royal Botanical Gardens through gifts from alums, McMaster officially relocated to Hamilton in 1930. Construction of six new buildings in the colligate gothic style had started in 1926 and was ready to receive students by 1930. McMaster Hall would be sold to the University of Toronto and today still stands as the home of the Royal Conservatory of Music. Even in Hamilton, the University continued its focus as a theology institution for Baptist clergy and training for adherents. But post-war, there were calls to expand and modernise the course offerings beyond theology and the arts. The problem is that such a move would go beyond the available funding from the Baptist Church. At this point, McMaster did not receive any public money as a religious university. The church would begin reorganising the University to form additional faculties in a separate college to ensure the addition of public funds. Construction through the 1950s would add additional buildings to add science and engineering programs. While the Baptist church maintained a connection to the University, it completely divested itself in 1957. The Theology school remained in a non-denominational form. McMaster would become the first University to complete and activate a research nuclear reactor in the British Commonwealth in 1959 and opened a massive medical school in 1965 to go along with today a major public teaching/research hospital in 1972.

One of the best parts about this month is going in with a near-total blank slate. Having only visited once, I had a general idea of getting out to some of the original buildings, and, of course, getting the exterior of the reactor was on my hit list. The trouble was that I needed to find out where any of these things were other than a rough idea. I also needed to determine how many of the original buildings were intact. Thankfully, they’re all close together, and once I found University Hall, I was set to go! It’s rather odd seeing the gothic architecture while also knowing that they were built during the 1920s, but as I started exploring more, I found some nods to art Deco and art modern sprinkled in with Brutalist architecture; the entire campus is a delightful mashup of different styles that all seem to work together. My favourite shot of the day was probably when I found the old greenhouses and saw a bunch of messages and other graffiti left by students as they were now in a new, larger greenhouse space. While I only captured some of the campus, I wanted to stay around the historic buildings and academic spaces. I do regret not being able to get a better shot of the hospital. With a limited lens and not wanting to leave the campus properly, I settled for a shot of the side.

This month, I continued to roll with the standard kit lens, the 28-80mm, which worked well in the environment as I needed both wide-angle and some room to get in a little closer to compose the shots better. Thankfully, the day was bright but with lovely even lighting, so I could shoot the roll at full box speed and then decided to develop the roll in Ilford Microphen. Despite all my photography and testing, this is my first time using this combination! The negatives looked dense coming out of the tank, but there was enough detail that I could work with them. The scans came out beautifully, and the contrast is right on the money for the day, which is what I’ve come to expect from Ultra 200. But what struck me is how nice it rendered the grain while maintaining and improving the sharpness. I’m pleased with these images; some could have been better, mainly the featured image, but I was restricted by space as much landscaping work was being done. But Arista 200 and Microphen is an excellent combination.

I wish I could have gone with some of my original plans, and I may still be able to do what I wanted with the year’s final months. But sometimes you must adapt and roll with what comes your way and work around to get the roll in. More importantly, I saw something new that wasn’t even on my radar. Next month, we’ll be visiting Halton County Radial Railway Museum in my hometown of Milton, Ontario, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year! It’s a location I’ve always wanted to include in one of these projects but never had a chance to; plus, with it being September and the start of term, it’s good to get out for a local adventure.