Rush Hour

After 12 hours squinting through the focussing glass of a large-format camera at snow blowers and barbecues, picking up my Nikon and hitting the streets was usually the last thing on my mind, especially in the dead of winter.

I have little to show for my 2-year apprenticeship in the belly of the advertising industry beast, unless one counts a few 4×5 and 8×10 transparencies — “trannies,” we called them — and catalogue tear sheets. Iconic images created by trend-setters like Richard Avedon, David Bailey, and Helmut Newton aside, advertising photographs tend to last as long as the limited-time offer for which they were made, before they are put to better use in the recycling plant.

Nonetheless, the few rolls of film I did put through my cameras outside the studio contain the odd gem I don’t mind sharing.

This winter scene, made on the corner of Bathurst and Queen Street West pleases me. It is a long way from this gritty, imperfect 35mm shot to the idealized world of a Sears room furnishings or fashion spread … unless one imagines the fur-clad woman or impeccably-uniformed mounted policeman an advertisement for, say, chic city living.

As a documentary photograph, it is a snapshot of 80s Toronto. The landmark Scotiabank tower is nearing completion, over on King Street (it sold in 2009 for $1.27-billion, the highest price paid for a Canadian office building). Cars are beginning to look old if not antique. The officer of Toronto Police’s mounted unit may seem like another historical footnote, yet the unit endures and has a proud 126-year history, from musical ride exhibitions to crushing dissent on the streets. People still read the Globe and Mail.

This was my neighbourhood for over a year. I caught the streetcar to work, across the street at Bathurst Station; danced at several clubs, all within steps of the intersection; drank beer at the pub nearby, played pool (or whack-a-cockroach) there and at a trendy pool hall further west.

I left Toronto by train a year later, on a similar cold winter day.

Limited edition and open edition prints available.