Erin Combs (born 1952 or 1953), also known as Erin Combs Pearl, is a photographer who worked at the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

''. Hired as a photojournalist in 1974, she was one of the first women photographers to contribute regularly to a major Canadian newspaper.

Early life and education

Born in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, Erin Combs moved to Canada when she was three years old. She was photographed for a girls' fashion story in ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' in 1964. In high school, she was a photographer for the school's

yearbook A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often ...

. In college she contributed photos to the college newspaper. She attended

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

in Toronto, Ontario.

Career

Combs worked as a freelance photographer while she was a university student in the early 1970s, at a time when no women photographers worked at major Canadian newspapers. In 1974, the ''

'' hired 22-year-old Combs as a photographer, where she became known as "Shorty" as she stood . She worked as a photographer in the fashion section, as a photo editor and as Head of Photography Department (1992 to 2000). During her time at the newspaper, Combs also judged photo contests and won the Judy award for journalistic coverage of the fashion sector (an award shared with the ''Toronto Star'' fashion team). ''Toronto Star'' photographer Dick Loek, reflecting on Combs's tenure at the newspaper, wrote that her father had said "if she got hired to watch out, because she would be running the joint in no time". Loek added that those words "turned out to be a pretty accurate prophecy". From 2001 to 2004, Combs worked in public relations and marketing for clothiers Zenobia Collections.

References

External links

Toronto Star photographs
at Digital Archive (

Toronto Public Library Toronto Public Library (TPL) (french: Bibliothèque publique de Toronto) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2008 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other pub ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Combs, Erin Canadian women photographers Living people York University alumni Fashion photographers Toronto Star people 1952 births