Tooton's Photography Ltd

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Tooton's Photography Ltd. was founded in 1905 in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, by Anthony Maurice Tooton (1886-1971). Tooton had immigrated from Damascus, Syria, as a teenager in 1903. Due to his previous studies in Paris, Tooton could forsee the direction photography was about to take (glass-plate negatives were about to become a thing of the past). More specifically, Tooton knew what George Eastman was doing with his Eastman Kodak Company and the great potential which could come from an association with the industry leader.

After five hard years of traveling door to door across the island of Newfoundland, taking portraits, and running his first store on Water Street in St. John's, Tooton, at the age of 21, left for Rochester, NY, to meet with George Eastman. His purpose in going was to ask Eastman for the exclusive distribution rights to all Kodak product for Newfoundland. Upon meeting the young Tooton, Eastman was so impressed that not only did he grant him the distribution rights on all Kodak product (a veritable monopoly which would last until Confederation in 1949), he also gave him the exclusive right to use the Kodak name on his major storefront in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Tooton's was synonymous with photography in Newfoundland and became a significant family endeavour. Before his death in 1971, Anthony Maurice Tooton passed the family business onto his son, Anthony Raymond Tooton (Ray), who grew the company and then handed it down to his son, Anthony Geoffrey Tooton (Geoff), who brought the company to greater heights, expanding into other markets.

The photographic industry was plagued with uncertainty and major changes in the early 1990s. Due to industry pressure Tooton's Photography Ltd. went out of business in November of 1995.

Anthony M. Tooton (IV), grandson of Anthony Raymond and son of Anthony Geoffrey, is currently working as a filmmaker and developing a documentary film about the Tooton family, Tooton's Photography Ltd. and the history of photography in Newfoundland [1].

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