This photo was taken at the corner of Church and Shuter in 2018. It reminds me of the Pretenders song: I went back to Toronto, but my city was gone. Well, not really gone, just replaced by bigger and better things.
Category: <span>Toronto</span>
© Avard Woolaver
A moment captured on Kodachrome. It was taken on a pedestrian walkover that crosses Lakeshore Boulevard and Gardiner Expressway. The warm light in the late afternoon was a perfect match for this reversal film that was known for its red/magenta cast.
I knew Paul Simon’s song Kodachrome before I got into photography, but didn’t know anything about the film itself. I would discover its magical qualities a few years later. Here is what Songfacts says about the song: “Paul Simon was working on a song with the title “Coming Home” when the word “Kodachrome” came to him. He had no idea what it meant, but knew it would make for a much more interesting song than “Coming Home.” The song became an appreciation of the things in life that color our world, and a look at how our memories are framed to fit our worldviews. Simon sometimes sings the line “Everything looks worse in black and white” as “Everything looks better in black and white.” He changes it a lot, and claims he can’t remember which way he wrote it.”
Kodachrome started in 1935 and effectively ended in 2010, when it was no longer possible to have it processed. Competition from Fujichrome and Ektachrome (which are easier to process) brought a decrease in sales, and the emergence of digital in 2000 signaled the end of the film. But once upon a time, Kodachrome roamed the earth–in cameras, camera bags, and pockets. It was with me when I traveled around Germany in 1978, Asia in 1989, and Europe in 1993. My faithful companion.
© Avard Woolaver
This photo was taken as I exited Wellesley Station, a subway station in downtown Toronto, just east of Yonge Street. Like many photos I took in Toronto in the 1980s, I had trouble identifying the exact location. In those days, for me, it was the shot that mattered; I cared little where it was taken. But with all of the changes in Toronto over the past thirty years, I’m much more interested in the location of the photos taken in those days.
With this photo I went on Google maps. I originally thought it must be St. Clair, but there was a very different view from that station. At Wellesley Station I could see by the parking lot, and buildings that I had found it.
I didn’t shoot a lot of colour in those days–maybe only 10 percent of my output. So I’m interested in what I chose to photograph in colour, and also the color palette I was drawn to. This one has some warm afternoon light contrasted with the cool blue of the newspaper stands. A moment in time.
This part of Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square is unrecognizable today, but this is how it looked in 1984. The photo was taken on Dundas East, looking west toward the intersection of Yonge and Dundas, and the Eaton Centre.
The Square was created in 2003 in an effort by the city to create a version of New York’s Times Square, or London’s Piccadilly Circus. The block of buildings on the left (with the Coles sign) was demolished, and the seven foot bronze sculpture “Bird of Spring” by Inuit artist Abraham Etungat was moved to the nearby Ryerson Community Park (aka the Quadrangle). The trees were also removed–critics of the development said that the city missed out on the opportunity for more green space in the downtown core.
There was a lot more open space in the city back in 1984, which meant more light on the downtown streets. It was about ten years before the start of the condo boom. There is a PCC streetcar (known as the Red Rocket) visible down at the intersection. People are out walking in the the September sun. Change and progress are inevitable, but I like to remember the Toronto of the 1980s. Call me nostalgic!
Here is what Yonge-Dundas Square looks like in a 2014 photo. The 1984 photo was taken below the red billboard on the right.
Kensington Market, Toronto, 1983 © Avard Woolaver
Kensington Market is a vibrant multicultural neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, just off Spadina Avenue. It is likely the most photographed area in the city and it’s no accident that I did a lot of my street photography there.
Before moving to Toronto I vaguely knew about the place from the CBC TV comedy King of Kensington starring Al Waxman. And there was a famous Toronto band called Kensington Market with their hit, I Would Be The One. But nothing could prepare me for the unique vibe of the place.
This photo shows the storefront of Stranger Cole Roots Records. Cole is a Jamaican singer who set up this shop in the 1970s. Empty boxes from a nearby produce store litter the sidewalk. A man in a retro suit looks lost in thought. And I just happened to be passing by with my Rollei 35S.