C.D.Woodley, 1910-2003, lived in Toronto and travelled in over 40 countries. He was an avid amateur photographer all his life, leaving a legacy of thousands of large format negatives, 35 mm slides, movies and some glass plates.
From the moment when he held his first camera with bellows of red Russian leather, Charlie loved photography. As a boy he accompanied his mother on a visit to England. Charlie has a photograph of her on the ocean liner's deck, smiling at his enthusiasm. Later he canoed in Algonquin Park. There are photos of Opeongo when the trees were shorter and the fish were longer. Once he ended up in North Bay, Ontario, almost out of money but instead of wiring home, he bought a bicycle and pedalled 300 kilometres down a gravelled highway 11. When he got to Toronto's Bloor Street, he sold the bike and bought a clean shirt.
During the depression, Charlie discovered how to hitch rides on freight trains. He made a circuit of Western Canada and the American southwest, and returned in time for classes at the University of Toronto. After he graduated, he travelled in Europe for 10 months. True to form, Charlie opted for maximum flexibility and independence. He bought a motorcycle and travelled fast. Of course, his camera was with him: in Germany during Hitler's rise to power, in North Africa, in the Middle East.
He'd had hopes of becoming a journalist but jobs were scarce, so he returned and worked in his father's small printing business, the Aldine Press. When changing technology made that difficult, he went back to school at age 55 and became a geography teacher. From then on, he and his wife took every available opportunity to travel the world together, bringing back thousands of photographs for lectures and classroom use. They took buses from Tehran through Afghanistan into Pakistan and India. They rode the Blue Train in South Africa and the Trans-Siberian Railway.
C.D.Woodley's photographs have been published in many magazines and newspapers, and collected by the National Film Board of Canada, the Public Archives of Canada, and private collectors. He is represented in Toronto by the Stephen Bulger Gallery.