Toronto Street Fashion, 1988

Carryn’s family owned a little grocery store on Queen Street West, near Bathurst, on the edge of Toronto’s Fashion District. We often chatted while I bought bread and milk or a packet of smokes. I don’t remember how the subject came up but she was eager, like many girls her age, to give modelling a try. I believe she had already been scouted by Judy Welch and needed to build a book (the negatives I scanned for this post are stored in an envelope from that agency). I shot her first portfolio photos.

Fashion on Rails

Carryn

She was a dream subject — intelligent, funny, adventurous, and keen — needing little direction from me.

As I recall, we headed west on Queen Street, dropping down to the industrial area along King Street, and ultimately to the train tracks bordering Front Street, where the top and lower right photos here were made. The headshot was made in the Palmerston Street house, using window light.

I can see via Google Maps that the Toronto Harbourfront has seen plenty of development since this 1988 shoot. The CN Tower (rising from Carryn’s right shoulder) of course still dominates the horizon, but a mass of offices and condo towers have sprung up in the interim to replace the gritty brick factory buildings I favoured as backdrops for urban fashion shoots.

We began shooting one late fall afternoon. The light was superb, with a thin fog acting as a giant “soft box” to diffuse the low sun. By the time we arrived down by the waterfront the light was fading. I blazed through a couple of rolls of black and white film down on the train tracks, saving a roll of colour for last.

After sunset, out came the trusty old Minolta flash, handheld on a coily-cord extension. Again, we had loads of fun, ending up with plenty of frames to choose from. But I picked one of the last shots on the 36-exposure roll — not technically the best, but the most animated. Thank goodness we pulled it off without injury to the model!

In all the time I worked in the city, this was one of the few independent fashion shoots I did outside of the commercial studios where I made my living. I can say that working without the pressure of deadlines, big budgets, and art directors was a welcome relief. Perhaps the only reason I didn’t freelance more was due to the exhausting schedule of the studios (and nightclubbing) I lived in those days.

I saw Carryn a few more times before I headed to England and then, after that sojourn in my country of birth, back to Vancouver. She had worked with more photographers and had the beginnings of a fine book.

Thirty-years later, I’m left with this record of our brief friendship and an afternoon that, compared to my usual workday, was a walk in the (industrial) park.