A standard question during a psychiatric intake interview is: Do you ever feel that the people around you can read your mind? I wonder if our cultural habits have rendered this question obsolete.
Tag: Street Photography
Social Distancing
What will be the longterm consequences of this pandemic. Will it permanently alter the way we gather in public? Will public authorities take greater care to manage crowd control? Will photographers ever again be able to follow Capa’s dictum as we try to document what happens in the streets of our cities?
Covid-19 in Toronto – Early Days
In his 1947 novel, The Plague, Albert Camus writes of an epidemic, probably bubonic plague, that decimates the inhabits of the French Algerian town, Oran. One of the curious observations he makes is that the “[p]lague had killed all colors”.
A Backward Glance
Far from the dispassionate observing eye, I am part of the scene I photograph and equally the subject of other people’s observations. Sometimes, my presence provokes their curiosity, at other times, their hostility.
Film vs Digital
I am as happy with the images I make with film as with my DSLR cameras. To me, these formats represent different strategies. The more strategies I use, the more opportunities I give myself to make varied and interesting photographs.
Filmores Hotel
As I continued to shoot, I heard a woman’s voice immediately to my right: Stop shooting! I ignored the voice and kept shooting. Stop taking photographs this instant.
Family Day Photo Walk
To take his mind off the pain and insomnia, he started decorating things, his mailbox and front porch to begin with, then expanding out into the yard to create a garden of glass beads, plastic bugs, pennies, action figures, rubber boots, bicycle tires, teapots, pool cues, ad infinitem.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Every now and then, Kylo Ren made an appearance accompanied by two stormtroopers. Notwithstanding the park’s ban on guns—even toy guns—the stormtroopers carried blasters and swaggered, stiff-torsoed, like they were US Marines.
The Birdman
I wanted the man to understand that I’m not just another callous photographer, that I care about animals and abhor cruelty. Who would do such a thing? I asked. He pointed at me. You did this. You and your camera.
Sherbourne Street Bridge Fire
On Tuesday January 7th, the City of Toronto conducted a sweep of homeless people from the Rosedale Valley ravine. Mayor Tory cited “health and safety” as an important reason for the sweep. News sources also cited “risks such as fire when open flames are used.”
Two Kinds of Seeing
As a photographer, I pride myself on my keen powers of observation, especially when I’m out wandering in the streets. Seeing is supposed to be my thing. How is it, then, that I could be so bad at it?
Impervious
We eat at the bar; my nephew is serving. A man sits on the stool to my left. He says he’s at the convention for the North American Widget Manufacturers Association or something like that. As soon as he opens his mouth, we know he’s an American …
The Future
I have lived long enough to have had a past. In that past, I remember there was a future. It was the future of the science fiction novels I read, and of the movies I watched.
Listening To Images
When I look at the photographs I took of the nighttime cutting, I hear a crackling sound. This is not memory; at the time, I could not hear the workers for all the traffic on the street. It’s more a synaesthetic experience. I ‘hear’ the images.
Everybody’s got a Hungry Horse
When I’m out with my camera, I’m drawn to horses the same way I’m drawn to children blowing bubbles and protesters rioting. Photographically speaking, horses make a great subject, especially on a 21st century city street where they seem so out-of-place.