Since we first went into lockdown nearly 7 months ago, my wife has been the model of shopping restraint, but with things opening up by a sliver, and with a sense of hope wafting on the air, she decided it was time for a new outfit. Something to celebrate. She wanted to go to Motion in Yorkville and to run a couple other errands so I went along with my camera. She left me at the corner of Cumberland and Bellair where I photographed people walking over the new mural on the street there. It’s called “Generally Speaking” by Nina Chanel Abney and curated by Ashley McKenzie-Barnes, both of whom identify as Black queer females (I’m quoting). Unveiled for Pride month, it incorporates the words, “Don’t Kill”, “Stop”, and “Love”. Personally, I think it’s bizarre that we find it necessary as a social collective to remind ourselves that we shouldn’t kill one another. Whatever helps. I like the colours and I like the vibrancy it adds to the setting. Still, it’s a bit clunky and, as you might gather from the explicit words, unsubtle. When you approach from the south, the first figure you encounter looks like a Black Mr. Potato Head. Then again, these are unsubtle times. I stood in fixed positions and shot people passing through the frame, white people shopping or eating ice cream cones. Gaudy. Oblivious. Sunburnt.
Motion was only serving customers by appointment and the next available time slot was an hour and a half later. After booking her appointment, Tamiko rejoined me and we meandered west along Yorkville. I’m practicing my vertical shoot-from-the-hip technique. Yesterday I had got a wonderful shot of a woman sleeping in a wheelchair. Today, I got a man wearing only blue shorts. As I passed, he was gesturing in an animated way to another man and explaining some important Biblical message. Although I regard myself as one of the churched which means that I was raised within a religious community and know when to sit and stand during a service, nevertheless, when I pass someone publicly flaunting their religion, I immediately assume they must suffer from a mental illness.
At Avenue Road, we turned south to the corner at Bloor by Church of the Redeemer, but not much was happening there, so we headed east along the north side of Bloor. I was amazed at all the lines to get into shops like Gucci and Winners (brands I tend not to think about in the same sentence). Speaking of mental illness…crossing Bloor from the Colonnade was a woman I see all the time wandering through Yorkville, a local, an eccentric, always in white and always with a white cap on her head. There is a story here but I have yet to figure out what it is. She smells and mutters to herself but always carries shopping bags from high-end stores. Gucci. Never Winners.
Tamiko had developed a blister on her foot so we ducked in to the Manulife Centre and went downstairs to the Shoppers Drug Mart for some Band-Aids. When we came back outside, it was raining so I sheltered under an overhang near the Bloor/Yonge intersection while Tamiko went in to Swarovski’s to stare at shiny things. There were line ups along the sidewalks for Aritzia, Zara, H & M, Nordstrom, Tokyo Smoke, The Bay. It’s like an Arctic spring: a winter of desolation and then, suddenly, an explosion of life. People everywhere and me with a camera to capture it all. Young people with money. Old people out for a stroll and leaning on their canes. Sirens blaring. Schizophrenics screaming at the cars. Things are starting to feel normal again.
