Photographer chronicles wonders of Dildo

In the summer of 2019, American TV host Jimmy Kimmel launched a running series of monologues about Dildo, Newfoundland.

Somehow he had picked up on the unusual and suggestive name (which has many possible origins and meanings but likely refers to the “thole-pin” which secures an oar to a boat).

Locals displayed their initiative and sense of humour and ran with it, capitalizing on the attention and refining it into pure tourism fuel.

Before it all simmered down the Kimmel Show declared Dildo a sister city to Hollywood, Kimmel was elected honourary mayor of Dildo, and Dildo had its own landmark Hollywood-style sign.

K. Bruce Lane’s album of fullcoloured photos — “Dildo Newfoundland” — documents the now world-renowned community from seemingly every angle.

The photos are divided into five sections, including “Dildo: An Early Newfoundland Word,” ‘The Giant Squid” and “Whaling.”

Each is introduced by a short piece of text, often no more than a page, and then it’s on to the visuals.

These show wharves, whale bones, mailboxes, window boxes and lots of boats and houses. Some are the original saltboxes while others are more modern bungalow and A-frames. The colours are bright and bold in their neat alignments. Lines of dried codfish wave like pennants in the sun. A café table and set of chairs directly overlook the water.

Several views of the outport are shot from the water. Most of this is crisp and representational, but a few, like a closeup of clear twine, or a boat’s hull atop its own reflection, are configured almost abstractly.

Other shots include exteriors and interiors, and people, laughing and at work.

There are swaths of blue skies but also signs of weather. And of course there are sightings of various Jimmy Kimmel paraphernalia.

This is Lane’s second volume of photographs (the first, “Eye of the Beholder,” was published way back in 1984), and he has also released his work on CD and DVD.