Angela Harrison, nėe Bobowsky, was born into a working-class family in North End Winnipeg in 1914. She was the fourth child of Martin Bobowsky and Anastazia Kondratiuk, both immigrants from Galicia, now part of Western Ukraine.  The family spoke Ukrainian in the home and the Ukrainian community was a central part of Angela’s life growing up. The Ukrainian Labour Temple, a local community centre, provided a wide range of educational, cultural and recreational programs, many of which Angela and her siblings and friends participated in. She attended Ukrainian school, took Ukrainian folk dancing, played in the mandolin orchestra, and participated in Ukrainian picnics, dances and other social events. She loved to go to the local swimming pool and became a life-long swimmer. She had many friends but became best friends with Ollie Gory, another Ukrainian girl her age; the two remained friends throughout their lives.

Angela contracted pneumonia as a child and did not start school until she was about seven years old. She attended the King Edward Community School and later Faraday School in Winnipeg. She left school at the age of 15, having completed Grade 8, to start work and help support her family. Her first job was working in her uncle’s photo studio, Star Photos on Main Street, where she hoped to learn photography but was instead expected to scrub floors. She soon quit and worked for the rest of that summer at a photo booth.

Angela’s parents separated in 1931 when Angela was 16. Her father moved out of the family home but continued to support his wife and children financially. Around this time Angela and her siblings changed their surname from Bobowsky to Bobbs in an effort to lessen the workplace discrimination against Ukrainian Canadians that family members were experiencing.

From 1933 and 1936, in the depths of the Great Depression, Angela, then in her early twenties, went wherever she could find work. In Chicago Angela stayed with her aunt and worked as an au paire. She moved to Kirkland Lake where she worked as a housekeeper at a boarding house owned by a friend’s mother. In the spring of 1935, she hitchhiked with her friend Ollie Gory to the Niagara region where they found work in a canning factory, and then in a tourist motel where Ollie worked as a waitress and Angela a laundress.

In 1936 Angela settled permanently in Toronto where her mother and siblings eventually lived. She worked in photo studios, initially spotting and hand-colouring black-and-white photographs in the days when colour photography was not generally affordable. She also retouched negatives and developed prints. She worked at Paramount Studios at Yonge and Shuter in 1935 – 36; Unique Art Studio at Yonge and Wellington from 1936 to 39; and Pasquale D’Angelo Studio from 1939 to 1945. Thereafter Angela took freelance assignments colouring prints and retouching negatives working part-time from home.

While working at Unique Art Studio in 1939 Angela met her future husband, Doug Harrison at the Palais Royale Dance Hall at Sunnyside Amusement Park. The couple courted until 1942 when Doug was called up to serve in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. He was stationed at several bases in Canada then sent to Europe in 1944, returning in 1946.

Doug and Angela were married at St Andrews United Church in Niagara Falls on February 16, 1946. They travelled from Niagara Falls to North Bay to have their wedding photograph taken by a photographer Angela had done freelance work for. Then they spent a two-week honeymoon at the Tally Ho Lodge in Huntsville. They returned to Toronto in March and took up residence in a small apartment at 747 Pape Avenue which was located on the present-day site of the Pape subway station.

For the next four years Doug studied chemical engineering at the University of Toronto. The couple had very little money, getting by on a small veteran’s pension, Angela’s freelance photography work, and Doug’s summer jobs. Their son was born in 1946 and daughter in 1948. Doug graduated in the spring of 1950 and found work as a research chemist with Ontario Hydro (now Ontario Power Generation) where he worked until his retirement.

For the next fifteen years Angela was a stay-at-home mom, taking care of the household and raising her children.  With Doug working full time the family finances gradually improved. They bought a car in the mid-50s. In 1956 they bought a small bungalow at 269 Ranee Avenue in North York. The children attended school. The family vacationed for two weeks every summer, initially at a cottage owned by Angela’s sister, Olga, on Paradise Beach, Lake Simcoe. Later they rented cabins on various lakes in the Nippissing area and spend their time sunbathing, reading and fishing. One summer in the late 1950s the family drove to Winnipeg to visit Ollie Gory, by then Ollie Hillman, and her family.

After her children completed their education and left the family home Angela took up photography again with support and encouragement from Doug. Angela took summer courses in photography at the Banff School of Fine Arts during a number of summers in the 1970s. She received a scholarship from the school in 1973. Between 1977 and 1979 she served as President of the North York Camera Club. Between 1975 and 1980 she published her photographs through a distribution service. In 1980, at the age of 65, she earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in Photographic Arts from the Ryerson Polytechnic Institute.

Angela and Doug travelled extensively during the 1970s and 80s within Canada, to North Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Angela photographed the trips producing collections, for example of the Canadian prairies, Egyptian temples and Moroccan street scenes. At home in Toronto Angela took occasional assignments to photograph weddings and portraits. She held exhibitions of her work at the University of Toronto, Toronto City Hall, the Yorkdale Shopping Centre and had permanent exhibits at other venues. Angela’s work included portraits of Norval Morrisseau and Luciano Pavaorotti.

Doug died in 1994. Angela continued to live alone in the family home. She had a wide network of family and friends. She continued to swim regularly at her community centre and pursue her interest in photography. She vacationed in Cuba and Barbados. In 2011 she decided to move into a retirement home and took up residence at Belmont House. Over the years her mobility deteriorated and she eventually moved into the Belmont House long term care wing. Angela died at Belmont House on March 3, 2015. Her ashes are interred with Doug at York Cemetery in North York.