Edie Steiner

• Edith Steiner

Edith (Edie) Steiner is a Toronto based photographer, filmmaker, composer, writer, and teacher. Born in Germany, Steiner emigrated to Canada with her parents in the 1950s, and her family settled in Manitouwadge, in Northern Ontario. Steiner moved to Toronto in the 1970s and pursued a degree in Media Studies from the Ryerson Institute of Technology (now Toronto Metropolitan University), specializing in fine art photography.
After graduating in 1973, Steiner became a freelance photographer, and she focused on documenting Toronto’s burgeoning punk and new wave scenes, as well as portraits of musicians. Her photographs began to make the pages of “Night Out,” “Today,” and “Impulse” magazine. Some of her notable portrait subjects at this time included Patti Smith, Debbie Harry of Blondie, and Rough Trade.
In the early 1980s, Steiner joined the experimental film collective, The Funnel, where she became interested in Super 8 filmmaking. Here, she produced several experimental short films on Super 8. As she was also composing music and playing in musical groups at the time, her film screenings often had a live music or performance aspect to them. Steiner also continued her photography, exhibiting her work at the Funnel and other galleries in Toronto. Around this time, her focus began to shift from the music scene and portraits to urban objects and landscapes.
Steiner branched out into narrative filmmaking, joining LIFT (Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto) in 1985. She began to write, direct, and produce films on 16mm, including “Places to Stay,” a film about Steiner’s experience as a German émigré; “Roses are Blue,” a lush, surreal film about the healing power of music; and “Felicity’s View,” a mediation on aging and desire. Steiner continued to compose music for her films, and frequently collaborated with other musicians including Chip Yarwood, Malcolm Lewis, Colin Offord, and Daniel Rojas.
Through the 1990s, Steiner’s work in both film and photography began to focus on social justice and environmental themes. In “Northland: Long Journey,” Steiner revisited both her hometown, Manitouwadge, as well the death of her father due to work-related illness. Steiner’s further explored the environment of Northern Ontario in her photo series “Northland,” as well her documentary film “Conversations on the Lake.” In the early 2000s, Steiner began to document the changes to Toronto’s waterfront wrought by development, which became the film and photo series “Views from Home: Facing North.” Her recent film, “Borderland Memories” explores the natural and built environments of Eastern Europe, as well as the ideas of memory, family, and nation.
Steiner earned an MA (2006) and PhD (2014) in Environmental Studies from York University, in Toronto, and she has taught at several Canadian universities. She is a member of the Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada (ALECC); the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC); The Film-Makers’ Cooperative (NACG); Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography; the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN); and Vtape. Some of her early photographic works can be found at the National Gallery of Canada.

Edie Steiner, Biography. https://ediesteiner.com/biography.
Edie Steiner, Films. https://ediesteiner.com/films-2
Edie Steiner, National Gallery of Canada, https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/edie-steiner.
Hoolboom, Mike. “Post-Punk: An Interview with Edie Steiner.” May 13, 2013. https://mikehoolboom.com/?p=13031

Lindsay Grant