Medium format, 135 film & digital photography
The series is broken into 3 volumes & an epilogue.
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trip a
circa winter 1996
queen & broadview & bloor west
The 3 items needed to keep a Toronto yard clean.
This photograph may actually be circa 1995
trip b
circa summer 1997
Jameson & Lakeshore, Queen west between Parkdale & Roncesvalles
At some point in 1997, my camera broke & I needed to hold the lens in place with my fingers. Often you may note this in the bottom right corner of some of these images.
Memory can be faded and out of focus. I learn to accept these things and cherish what I can preserve.
trip c.
September/October 2011
From 1998 to 2010 I was working professionally in the film & television industry. I was working 12-18 hours a day, with little-to-no creative energy left for my photography.
In 2007 I had to leave Toronto & set up a new life outside of the GTA in Eastern Ontario.
2011 marks the first time I really began missing & taking note of the massive changes to Toronto, my city, my love, & I wanted to resume photographing aspects of it I missed while documenting its change.
I have a few negatives & digital files I am trying to locate from 1998-2010. I will update this period of time when I have located my photographs.
City hall will always remind me of the Toronto of the 90s. Jack Layton will always remind of a 90s era toronto. Jack Layton's memorial against a city hall backdrop is the perfect good-bye.
999-1001. I remember the brick wall. This corner was blocked from a lot of sun and very sad. That has all changed now.
Just before texting was a BIG thing. I remember being in Toronto at this time & it seemed like half the population was texting while the other was not. I remember thinking how absurd it all looked.
This is Toronto for me.
Queen West
I miss Toronto sunsets & sunrise against its buildings & people.
Growing up, this corner was the mecca of pop culture.
Echoes of spaces now gone.
Occupy Toronto
October, 25th, 2011
The occupy movement both excited & fascinated me. It was important to me that I make it to Toronto to photograph the movement for the record. Looking back I see the message of the movement imbedded in cardboard cutouts that are reminiscent of social media posts. I see foreshadowing of things to come. I am not sure if this movement has lost, or if it has become subversive & is beginning to un-do the fabric.
I've shared a few of these images before, but never in a complete project, never telling the complete narrative from the hours I spent there observing.
