Sometimes photos resemble paintings–whether it’s the lighting, the subject matter, or the mood. Some photographers recreate paintings as photographs like Laura Hofstadter with her self-portrait series. Also many painters use photographs as a reference when they paint.
I had always thought that this 1982 photograph of Elm Street in Toronto looked like a painting, but no painter came to mind. Then my social media friend Amy Dix suggested that it looked like something by English artist L.S. Lowry. I could immediately see the similarity.
The above photo was taken from the rooftop of Sam the Record Man–the iconic record store. These days it’s the location of The Ryerson Student Centre, an amazing creation of function and design. In 2018, I managed to get a photo of Elm street through a window, maybe on the 4th floor. It’s great to compare the old with the new, and see the changes over the past 36 years.
Elm Street at Yonge (looking west), Toronto, 1982, appears in the book Toronto Flashback (1980-1986) and is available through Blurb Books.