Sometimes certain photos seem to be suspended in time. This one was taken in Toronto in 1980, though it almost looks as if it could be have been from decades earlier, say the 1920s, or 1930s. One thing is for sure, you won’t find this kind of scene in Toronto these days, unless it is on a film set.
Photos taken recently rambling around Hants County, Nova Scotia, with my camera. I’m usually on my way to somewhere and stop to take a few photos. It works better when I’m alone, as I get complaints from family members.”You’ve taken this photo a hundred a hundred times. Let’s get going!” (Perhaps they’re right.)
According to Wikipedia, the name Hants is an old abbreviation for the English county of Hampshire, from the Old English name Hantescire. It’s beautiful here, especially in autumn.
I try to put some pizzaz into my photos from time to time. This self portrait from 1980 does that quite literally. If you listen carefully to this photo, you can hear my stomach rumbling, anticipating a tasty pizza slice.
My personal favourite spot for a pizza slice was “John’s New York Pizza and Spaghetti Palace” at Danforth and Greenwood. I lived just around the corner, and went there often. (It disappeared quite suddenly in 2004.) After that it was Vesuvio’s, Pizza Gigi, Bitondo’s, and The Big Slice. I’m starting to get hungry!
Taken in the fall of 1980 on Parliament Street, Toronto, the photo shows three men talking in the doorway of a men’s clothing shop. The sign reads Canadian-made dress shoes: $29.95. This photo is previously unpublished.
Taken on Yonge Street in the autumn of 1981, this photo always gives me a little chuckle. It features a very 1980s-looking garbage bin (trash receptacle), some sidewalk art, and the phrase: Spend Your $avings. Also, a cigarette butt and a few scattered leaves. The shadows cross the frame in an interesting way. It suits my mood at the moment as I listen to Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 experimental psychedelic album, After Bathing at Baxters, and sip cold coffee.
Spend Your Savings seems like both a demand and a plea. I laugh because I managed to do just that before leaving Toronto in 2005.
This photo appears in the photo book: Toronto Hi-Fi.