Writings, Reviews, Cultural Criticism
As with thousands of other kids who passed through the conservatory program, Glenn Gould was an enormous presence lurking in the background. I was one of those nerdy kids who collected vinyl. I bought everything by David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Brian Eno … and Glenn Gould. I had both releases of the Goldberg Variations, both volumes of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Partitas, Haydn Sonatas, Mozart Sonatas.
Here are sample photos of people riding bicycles. Each is shot by a different method, each with a different result. I shot the first image with a fast shutter speed. Both cyclist and background are crisp. I shot the second with a slower shutter speed (1/160) and moved the camera in sync with the cyclist…
Typically, when I go out at night, I bring a tripod, shoot long exposures, cityscapes with light trails, people so blurred you can’t recognize them. But sometimes it’s good to break the rules, even if they are only self-imposed. Here are some night shots without a tripod.
It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while I get all sentimental and my camera turns to goo as it did when I went to Ward Island for dinner at The Rectory. Maybe it has something to do with all the grass and trees, or the clean air, or the quiet.
Passengers no longer have to wait for the ferry when they want to catch a flight from Toronto Island. Heather Mallick’s op-ed in the Toronto Star nicely captures the feel of the place: “The pedestrian lake tunnel at Toronto’s downtown Billy Bishop Airport has finally opened at the cost of annihilating the soul, plus $82.5 million.”
Spent the day at the zoo, the only person there (or so it seemed) who didn’t have little kids in tow. Wandering around with my long lenses, I had to be careful not to be taken for a pervert stalker.
Mixed media artist, David Hynes, has a conundrum. Maybe you’ve seen it. I saw it in the Distillery District as part of Panamania. It’s a canoe with raw hide wrapped taut across the gunwales to form a giant drum.
I read an article (I can’t remember where) that suggested the selfie stick is no longer simply a fad; it’s gone to the next level and has become a cultural phenomenon, whatever that means. I think what the author was getting at is that its presence in our daily activities is symptomatic of deeper cultural rumblings. It captures something of the zeitgeist.
Last night saw the close of the PanAm Games in Toronto. Photographically speaking, they’ve been kind of hard to miss; they’ve formed part of the city’s backdrop for months now.
I was shooting in Callaghan Lane, near Dundas & Parliament, when a guy spotted me and came over to chat. Before he went on his way, I asked if he would pose for me.
Here’s a collection: 20 of my best shots from this year’s Toronto Pride week. Most are from the parade on Sunday afternoon. You can view more in a flickr album here.
I observe Toronto’s Pride Week the same way I observe Remembrance Day: with a great deal of skepticism. I want to remember. I want to remember how people struggled to carve out a space for themselves where they can live with a measure of dignity. I want to remember friends and family who succumbed to HIV/AIDS.
My initial assessment of the 5DS was that it would be best for measured, reflective, slow photography, the kind of photography that requires you to set the camera on a tripod, carefully compose the shot, turn on mirror lock-up, pull out your remote, take a deep breath, then release the shutter. That initial assessment may have been premature.
A selection of signs in downtown Toronto: I don’t see that a psychic has much to complain about in this situation; she should have foreseen the problem before she set up business. Also, I would have thought psychics are better spellers than this. Couldn’t she “travel” to the library & consult the OED before she…
More than in any other genre of photography, street photography seems to demand purity codes, like a religious cult or a hockey team. You can’t be a real street photographer unless you shoot with a Rangefinder, or a Leica, or only shoot “unposed” subjects. There’s even a UK-based web site that sells “official” streettog T-shirts.