Bill Braden 2017. Photo: Doug Johnson
I was 10 years old when my family left Saskatchewan in 1964 for Yellowknife. Four years later I was printing my first black and white photos in the school darkroom and the magic has never left. As a young reporter with the weekly News of the North andYellowknifer newspapers in the early 1970s, I started to hone a nose for news and an eye for images.
After a short stint in the Photo Department of the Edmonton Journal (1974) I joined the Department of Indian Affairs Affairs and Northern Development (1976-1980) as a communications officer in the NWT and Whitehorse, Yukon.
In Whitehorse, my wife Valery and I opened Yukon Gallery in 1977, a retail fine art and framing shop. With the arrival of our two daughters and after selling the business in 1987, we returned to Yellowknife. I took on a varied portfolio: small business adviser with the Federal Business Development Bank, executive director of the NWT Tourism Industry Association, back to the Yellowknifer as the mining and business reporter, and from 1995 to 1999, the director of communications for the NWT Power Corporation.
I won election to the NWT Legislative Assembly as the Member for Great Slave for two terms (1999 to 2007), serving as a "regular" member in the NWT's consensus, non-partisan legislature. I chose to retire from politics and return to my photography roots. To catch up on the digital age, I earned an honours diploma in Commercial Digital Photography from the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts (VANarts) in 2009. Since starting business that year, I have been fortunate to work with many of the resource, industrial and community leaders across the NWT.
The amazing growth of the aurora tourism industry in Yellowknife has opened some new doors. I self-published a book for this amazing new market, and am currently looking at having it translated and formatted for the Asian visitor. I also have fun sharing the wonder of the aurora, and have been guiding aurora tourists for My Back Yard Tours since 2017. It was a real surprise to be recognized by the industry with the Service Excellence Award for 2018. I hope to expand on this with leading aurora photo workshops in the near future.
Bill Braden
Yellowknife NT
February 2019
After a short stint in the Photo Department of the Edmonton Journal (1974) I joined the Department of Indian Affairs Affairs and Northern Development (1976-1980) as a communications officer in the NWT and Whitehorse, Yukon.
In Whitehorse, my wife Valery and I opened Yukon Gallery in 1977, a retail fine art and framing shop. With the arrival of our two daughters and after selling the business in 1987, we returned to Yellowknife. I took on a varied portfolio: small business adviser with the Federal Business Development Bank, executive director of the NWT Tourism Industry Association, back to the Yellowknifer as the mining and business reporter, and from 1995 to 1999, the director of communications for the NWT Power Corporation.
I won election to the NWT Legislative Assembly as the Member for Great Slave for two terms (1999 to 2007), serving as a "regular" member in the NWT's consensus, non-partisan legislature. I chose to retire from politics and return to my photography roots. To catch up on the digital age, I earned an honours diploma in Commercial Digital Photography from the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts (VANarts) in 2009. Since starting business that year, I have been fortunate to work with many of the resource, industrial and community leaders across the NWT.
The amazing growth of the aurora tourism industry in Yellowknife has opened some new doors. I self-published a book for this amazing new market, and am currently looking at having it translated and formatted for the Asian visitor. I also have fun sharing the wonder of the aurora, and have been guiding aurora tourists for My Back Yard Tours since 2017. It was a real surprise to be recognized by the industry with the Service Excellence Award for 2018. I hope to expand on this with leading aurora photo workshops in the near future.
Bill Braden
Yellowknife NT
February 2019