‘It meant so much to me’: Toronto woman finds father in AGO exhibit

Not long after Jeanette Robinson-Daley stepped foot into the What Matters Most exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario, she was drawn to a very familiar face. She had been gifted an AGO membership last fall from her mother, and went to see the exhibit just half an hour before the art museum closed for the night.

“I was just kind of skimming through each bay and my eyes landed on my father’s photograph,” she said.

“I was very, very surprised and shocked to see that. There was a couple of young people around and I was like, ‘Hey, this is my dad.’ They’re like, ‘OK, whatever,’ but it meant so much to me.”

Robinson-Daley says she recognized everything in the photo, which was taken by her mother more than 50 years ago, from the apartment near Christie Pits Park to the person holding the trumpet. She immediately called her father, Prince Robinson.

“I said, ‘I saw your picture in the art gallery.’ He’s like, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it’s you,'” said Robinson-Daley.

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“He said tears came to his eyes at that time.”

The exhibit has displayed hundreds of photos highlighting everyday moments of Black family life.

The Art Gallery of Ontario says all of the polaroids were lost and had been discovered on the streets of North America by artist and educator Zun Lee. Most photos were found in the U.S.

“He started to wonder, ‘Why is it that photographs of Black family life are so available in the market? What are the conditions that lad to these photographs … these singular, very touching images of life at home … how have they been separated from their families?'” said co-curator Sophie Hackett.

“That question is really at the heart of the exhibit.”

Lee had been collecting thousands of photographs since 2012. The team at AGO sifted through each and every photo and hand-picked 500 to be displayed in the What Matters Most art show. Robinson-Daley’s father was one of them.

“It’s like a needle in a haystack. It was such a surprise, a delightful surprise,” said Hackett.

It’s believed the photo of Robinson was found in California. To this day, Robinson still has the polaroid camera that captured the once-forgotten moment.

To his daughter, Robinson-Daley, it is more than just a full-circle moment. She says the experience has made her feel “seen” and has strengthened their father-daughter bond.

“As adults, sometimes we grow up and we get busy with our own lives and doing other things … but this has brought us a lot closer. It’s unified us as a family. We were able to sit down and look at other polaroids that we have and it just makes such a difference in knowing who we are,” she said.

“Some things money can never buy, and this is one of those things.”

The exhibit runs until Jan. 8.