“The Bounce,” the celebrated composite photograph of the Montreal Snowshoe Club by Wm. Notman & Son of Montreal, made in 1886 and signed in the negative at lower left. A ring of snowshoers has just hurled a clubmate into the air, and he hangs spread-eagled against the winter sky above their raised hands.

The men wear the club’s winter dress: white blanket coats banded with dark stripes, fringed sashes knotted at the waist, tasselled tuques, dark stockings and moccasins. Their arms reach upward and their faces are tipped back, several of them laughing. Above them the tossed man lies flat on the air, mittened hands thrown wide and one leg kicked high. Behind the group a painted winter landscape runs back to a dark tree line, with a bare tree and a small building at the right.

The picture was built in the studio, not taken in the snow. Each man was photographed separately, the figures were cut out and mounted on a painted background, and the assembled artwork was rephotographed to make the final negative. The method let Notman freeze a moment that no camera of the day could have caught outdoors, and it records the club’s custom of tossing a member skyward.

William Notman (1826-1891) was born in Paisley, Scotland, and settled in Montreal, where he became the first Canadian photographer to win an international reputation. His studio was known above all for its composites of snowshoe, curling and other sporting clubs. The original negative of “The Bounce” is preserved in the Notman Photographic Archives at the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal.