Commuters: Bathurst and Queen, Toronto, 1988

One roll of Kodak TMAX 400 film records a busy February, in 1988. Beginning with this image of early morning commuters at Toronto’s Bathurst and Queen Street West, I went on to photograph, the mounted policeman, possibly later that day. The next several frames remind of a day trip out of the city with friends Bryan Hay and Deirdre Lawlor. Clothing reveals, and I remember well, it was a bitterly cold day. A few shots back at the Palmerston Street house we shared before Brian and I were off to Vancouver for a short visit enabled by a very cheap airline seat sale.

February Record

The next 14 frames record visits with an old girlfriend at a Vancouver café and her new boyfriend’s studio, and a trip to my old climbing haunt at Squamish with my brother and sister-in-law. Finally, at the end of the 36-exposure roll, we’re back on the frigid streets of Toronto, with three exposures dedicated to portraits of housemate Patti Normand in the front room of the house.

Imagine shooting just 36 photos over several weeks. We used to do that.

Prints are available in limited and open editions.

 
The scene looks pretty similar today (note the pattern of exposed brick on the second building from the left), but the last of the PCC (Presidents’ Conference Committee) trams, perhaps better known as the “red rocket,” produced between 1936 and 1952, was retired from regular service in 1995.