Photographs have been taken in the area now known as Canada since 1839, by both amateurs and professionals. In the 19th century, commercial photography focussed on portraiture. But professional photographers were also involved in political and anthropological projects: they were brought along on expeditions to Western Canada and were engaged to document Indigenous peoples in Canada by government agencies.
Canadian photography became more institutionalized in the 20th century. Railways including the Canadian Pacific Railway heavily used photographs in their advertising campaigns. The Still Photography Division, a department of the National Film Board of Canada, produced images for national and international distribution. Initially focussed on promoting a positive vision of the nation, by the 1960s the division transitioned to documentary photography attuned to individual photographers' artistic inclinations.
According to critic Penny Cousineau-Levine, contemporary photography in Canada de-emphasizes documenting reality; rather, it treats photographs as an invitation to consider the otherworldly.