I don’t take photos of people out of some lurid voyeuristic obsession, but because I’m drawn to fundamental questions. Taking photos of people is a way to address those questions. I’m drawn to questions of identity. What does it mean to be a person?
Tag: Urban
Traffic in Hong Kong
When people ask me if I would ever consider living off the grid, I sometimes think they’re talking about traffic patterns. I’m used to living in a city where streets are laid out in straightforward north-south, east-west lines. It’s hard to get lost and traffic is predictable. But grid planning is contingent upon physical geography.
Fire On Jarvis Street
Naturally, there was a security guard posted to keep the gawkers out. He followed me around. I assumed that he assumed that I was going to try to sneak into the building for some interior shots, so I thought I better say something to assure him I’m not stupid.
Random Acts Of Creativity
I eat my lunch at noon and my supper at six. I go to bed at eleven so I can have a good night’s sleep. I like the regularity. It never occurs to me that I could disrupt this well laid pattern by snipping up a novel and pasting bits of it onto carefully selected surfaces. It might make me late for lunch.
An Unseasonably Warm November
At a time when the weather should be cold and dull, a streak of bright warm weather comes as a boon to street photographers. People are out being people, doing all the varied things that people do, maybe with more gusto (desperation?) because they know it can’t last.
Chatting With Agustín
There’s a karmic quality to street photography: what the gods take away with one hand, they grant with the other. I walked west along Queen, squinting into the late afternoon sun, and saw a man in silhouette leaning against a wall and bumming a light from a passerby.
When November Turns Warm
Most years, we think of November as cold and dreary. We don’t need meteorological records to confirm our assumptions about November; we can read what poets and novelists have written.
New Graffiti Under St. Clair St. Bridge
An earlier post on graffiti under the St. Clair St. bridge is now officially an archival document. The original subject matter no longer exists, so the only record of it is in photographs like mine. The city’s anti-graffiti people have grey-washed the concrete footings on the east side of the St. Clair St. Bridge.
Why did I shoot yet another fucking cliché?
This morning my alarm went off at 5:00. I remember setting it last night. My night self was pulling a prank on my morning self. My night self told my morning self that getting up at 5:00 is good for you. That’s when you get all the good shots. Plus: getting up is good for body and soul. Think of Benjamin Franklin: healthy, wealthy and wise.
Scaffolding
Although scaffolding sites are temporary, and shift dynamically across the face of the city, the fact of scaffolding itself is a permanent feature of modern city life. Forgive the oxymoron, but scaffolding is an ephemeral permanency.
The Long Shot
Sometimes I like to photograph people from a distance, using a white or light-coloured wall as a backdrop. One challenge in a city is finding a wall that isn’t obscured by building shadows during the sweet light times of day.
Getting Made
Getting Made is that magic moment when you discover that despite your best efforts to maintain your cover as you photograph in the street, the people in your frame know exactly what you’re doing.
The Original Street Art
Before there were graffiti artists, there were civil engineers. At least that’s a theory of mine. For years now, Toronto has been in the grips of a construction boom and, before anybody breaks ground, teams of surveyors and engineers spray paint lines all over the pavement. The streets become canvasses for a kind of urban development graffiti.
More Skateboards
Shooting skateboarders is like shooting wildlife (or small children): they don’t sit still and pose. If you’re lucky, they’ll stop at an intersection.
Street Art In Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay has a vibe that reminds me of Victoria. There are a lot of young people, especially the sort of young people who don’t hang out at Conservative Party conventions. They live counter cultural values, buy local, vote Green. And express themselves accordingly …