Harry Cornelius is a largely self-taught photo-based artist exploring the intersection of painting, music and photography. He’s come to the practice of art later in life, starting “from the other side of the canvas” as a deeply engaged viewer.

His engagement in photography grew out of his interest in landscape painting, the philosophy of nature and his early years collecting photography including work of Carleton Watkins, W. H Jackson, Richard Misrach, Frederick Monsen and Edward Curtis among others.

He wrote an unpublished book-length manuscript on Carleton Watkins in 1983 and an unpublished essay on the work of Volker Seding in 1992. He published a review of photographer Jimmy Limit’s show at Clint Roenisch gallery in Canadian Art.

Harry was a member of the Board of Toronto Photographers Workshop in the early 90s. In 2003, Harry “translated” one of his landscape images into a musical score performed by the Griffin Trio at Victoria College, University of Toronto. Harry began serious pursuit of photographic practice in 2010.

Harry was trained in philosophy. He holds a B.A. from Bennington College. He was a President’s Fellow at Columbia University in the Department of Philosophy, where he also took courses in art history.

Harry was trained in classical ballet and modern dance. He is past President of Continuum Contemporary Music. Professionally, he is one of the pioneers of enterprise branding in Canada.