Writings, Reviews, Cultural Criticism
In August, I posted photos from under the Glen St. Bridge which passes over Toronto’s Beltline Trail and Yellow Creek. But it’s worth posting new photos of the same locale. What with all the trees losing their leaves, and the lower angle of incidence for morning light, and snowfall acting as a natural reflector, things…
Where Bloor Street passes over Rosedale Valley Road, there are two bridges instead of one. There’s one bridge for the road, and another for the subway.
Victoria has had a decent graffiti scene (probably because of the climate). But my impression is that the city has been trying to sanitize its appearance. Even so, there are still some places where you can find interesting street art.
Yesterday, while I was walking under the St. Clair Street Bridge (aka The Vale of Avoca), I saw this guy finishing up a “Wave” on one of the concrete supports. He tagged it MXC.
I wonder if it’s okay to shoot graffiti. The reason for my concern is that if I shoot graffiti I’ll be appropriating the creative expression of someone else. All the originality and work is theirs. I simply point my camera and click a button.
These shots come from the abandoned rail tracks that run northwest by the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto
There’s a culvert I’ve taken to photographing that is quickly becoming my favourite. It’s a continuation of Yellow Creek on the east side of Mount Pleasant Avenue.
One wonders if some of the usual hostility towards graffiti doesn’t stem from the fact that it’s a kind of political speech.
The name, Fario, keeps popping up on walls in downtown Toronto. But who is Fario?
So here’s the question: is there a distinctive Scottish style of graffiti which would justify a distinctive Scottish country? Or is its style of graffiti simply part of a globalized hegemonic free-trade graffiti that you could find anywhere, whether on NYC subway cars or under Iraqi bridges?
In Toronto, the Rosedale neighbourhood is noted for its many well-appointed homes. I recently toured one such home which is easily accessed from the Park Drive Reservation Trail. There is a broad, well-lit entrance that makes a bold statement when guests arrive.
In Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs, Ansel Adams gives accounts of how he produced some of his most famous photographs. When I picked up the book, I noted that he had written an account of graffiti he shot at an abandoned military installation north of San Francisco.
Stencils are a quick and dirty graffiti. Where murals take a long time (meaning it’s easy to get caught doing them), stencils are easy to execute and you can do them over and over. The gallery below shows stencils I’ve documented in Victoria, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa & Paris.
I make no secret of the fact that I intensely dislike Rob Ford. If it were simply a matter of concern for his substance abuse issues, I could cut the man some slack.
After being away for a month, I returned home to Toronto with a question burning on my lips: So how’s Rob Ford’s War on Graffiti going? On Friday, I went downtown to get some answers.