It’s not often – perhaps never – in the Georgian Bay area, that a newly-published book is dedicated to a hospital and a hospice. But that is the case with the publication of “Our Changing Collingwood” which is dedicated to both General and Marine Hospital in Collingwood and Hospice Georgian Triangle/Campbell House, also in Collingwood.
Author-photographer George Czerny-Holownia draws a parallel between the exploding growth of Collingwood and nearby Blue Mountains Resorts area – parts of both areas featured in aerial photographs in his book – and the ever-growing workload on both the local hospital and hospice.
“The staff at both our hospital and our hospice deserve tremendous credit for the work they do,” said Czerny-Holownia adding “and with my book dedication, my aim is to draw attention to both of these important, community facilities”. An aerial photograph showing the hospital and the hospice is among the 125 photographs and 88 pages of “Our Changing Collingwood”.
Czerny-Holownia, also known as George Czerny, has been taking aerial views in the southern Georgian Bay region of Ontario, Canada, since the late 1970s. In that time, manufacturing concerns have come and gone and residential development — especially in the Collingwood and Blue Mountains areas — has exploded in this popular region.
George, as he likes to be known, brings to your fingertips photographs of the Collingwood Shipyards, once an economic powerhouse locally and an industry which closed in 1986.
Collingwood still has industries but residential growth has taken this waterfront community to a population of 22,000 from the 10,000 population of the 1970s.
“If you can’t find your house in my Collingwood photographs, you will likely be able to pick out a bird’s-eye view of your neighbourhood,” said George adding “This book is a conversation starter. The content outweighs the size of this book”.
Other aerial photographs, show areas of Blue Mountain Resorts before the popular “Village at Blue” was built and since. Some of George’s most-recent photographs of Collingwood and the Blue Mountains’ area were taken November 3, 2022.
In addition to his aerial photographs in “Our Changing Collingwood”, George includes historically-important ground-level photographs of such things as spectacular side- launchings at the Collingwood Shipyards. The shipyards closed in 1986 and the land on which this industry operated has been redeveloped with condominiums. You can see before and after views in “Our Changing Collingwood”.
There is nothing like “Our Changing Collingwood” when it comes to comparing various aerial views of parts of Collingwood and Blue Mountains, featuring development through the years, says George who last June self-published a separate, aerial-views book “Come fly with George”. That book, says George, features aerial views of Collingwood and the Blue Mountains but without a strong emphasis on the “now and then” aspect. “Our Changing Collingwood” is about half-and-half old photos and new photos, he said.
George has eleven books, including his latest, for sale from an on-line, book-publishing platform at www.blurb.com. He also has a book about democracy and voter apathy, “Kiss The Ground You Walk On, Canada!”, which he published in 2019, on a Canadian book-publishing platform at www.volumesdirect.com.
In 2004, George wrote and published a travel guide to Georgian Bay called “George’s Georgian Bay”. About 10 years later, he updated and republished “George’s Georgian Bay” using the publishing platform www.blurb.com.
George is a retired newspaper publisher/reporter-photographer who continues to write and take photographs both from the ground and from the air. He lives in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada with his wife, Nancy.