street photography Archives - Page 4 of 8

Published August 16, 2021 by avardw

From a folder on my computer titled: Toronto Unseen

These are photos from a folder on my computer titled: Toronto Unseen. They are images of Toronto taken in the 1980s and 1990s that have previously not been posted or published–unseen by the public. I will post them periodically on my blog and talk a little about them.

The photo above was taken in 1982, and I’m unsure of the location. I sometimes look at the contact sheet for clues, and it seems that went to the Danforth Music Hall to see a movie, so it may have been taken on the Danforth. I like this one–people waiting for the bus, or a taxi, life in the big city. I was in my second year of photography studies at Ryerson and taking street photos almost every day, on the lookout for scenes like this one. It was on one of the first rolls taken with my Rollei 35–an amazing little camera with a fixed 40mm Zeiss Sonar lens. Totally manual–you even have to guess the focus. It took a bit of getting used to!

This photo was on the first roll of film after I arrived in Toronto in September 1980. It was across the street from my apartment, literally the first thing I saw when I stepped outside to do my first day of shooting and exploring the city. My camera was still loaded with Kodak Panatomic-X that I was shooting in Nova Scotia. I quickly found out that this 32 ASA fine grain film was unsuitable for street photography and switched to Tri-X after that. These two store fronts were a revelation of sorts. I could never have taken this photo anywhere in Nova Scotia. These type of storefronts just didn’t exist, or at least they weren’t easily seen. Toronto was so foreign, and multicultural that it seemed like a different country. It was exciting and amazing, and I had a camera. It was the start of my love affair with Toronto.

Fast forward fourteen years. I’m back in Toronto after the previous six years teaching English in Japan. Toronto seems smaller and more spacious compared to Japanese cities. I’m still shooting with the Rollei 35, doing less street photography, but trying to refine my approach. I wanted my pictures to be more clever, or at least say something more. With this one I tried to juxtapose the sign “for the human race” with the boy, (racing!) across the bridge with his dog.

These days I’m back living in rural Nova Scotia, where I started out. I have few opportunities to do any kind of street photography, but I’m still refining my vision and trying to take time to observe the world around me.

Black and White Photography Toronto

black and white film photography photography street photography Toronto Toronto Unseen

Published March 19, 2021 by avardw

Toronto Faces in the 1980s

I saw many Toronto faces in the 1980s. Often people were present in my street scenes, but not the main feature. But sometimes the people were front and center. My way of approaching people varied, depending on the situation, but I aimed for the moment. Sometimes it seemed better to take a candid photo, whereas other times it seemed more appropriate to talk to the person and ask if I could take a photo.

Many of these photos were taken at Yonge and Dundas, near the entrance to the Eaton Centre–a hub of activity where people of all stripes mixed and mingled and crossed paths. There were buskers, office workers, students, homeless people, and people out shopping. I mostly used a wide angle lens and tried to blend into the environment rather than call attention to myself. And I usually took only one photo of a particular person or group.

Looking back at these photos, I wonder what the children have done in their lives, if the adults are happy in their old age, and if the older adults are still alive. Forty years have passed since I took many of these photos, and so much has changed in Toronto, yet I don’t believe the people have changed much. They still enjoy the thing that make the city unique–sports, entertainment, restaurants, parks, and vibrant neighborhoods. These Toronto faces remind me that although I live in Nova Scotia now, the city keeps calling me back.

Toronto, street photography, 1980s — Reggae Concert, Toronto, 1984 – © Avard Woolaver

I saw many Toronto faces in the 1980s. My way of approaching people varied, depending on the situation, but I aimed for the moment. — Yonge and Dundas, Toronto, 1982 – © Avard Woolaver

Photography Street Photography Toronto

1980s film photography street photography street portraits Toronto Toronto faces

Published February 13, 2021 by avardw

Documentary Photos in New York, 1983

These are some documentary photos taken in New York in 1983. Documentary photography can be defined as style of photography that provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects and events, and is often used in reportage. It can be both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life.

For me, documentary photos are ones that are taken without manipulation, or staging. My urban photographs from the 1980s, taken in Toronto, New York, Japan, and Asia are largely street photographs, but are also documentary in that they capture life as it is. And the passage of time makes them more interesting, and valuable, as documents of another era. The above photo, for example, shows a man sitting at the entrance to B. Altman and Company on 5th Avenue. It was the flagship store of a luxury department store chain that opened in 1906 and closed for good in 1989. It’s nice to have a record of this iconic store.

A recent article by Authur Lubow in the New York Times titled, Life As It’s Seen, Not Staged makes the point that documentary photography, which fell out of favor with the rise of manipulated images, is making a comeback. An exhibition at the International Centre of Photography highlights young photographers share “a commitment to portray life as they discover it in the world at large, without staging or manipulation; and by so doing, find and express themselves.” Lubow also makes the point that “nothing is weirder than a straight photograph of an uncanny subject.” In short, truth is stranger than fiction.

In my early sixties, I sill find everyday life endlessly fascinating, and continue to capture it with my documentary photos. They help me make sense of the world we live in, and also help me remember the places I’ve been, and people and things I’ve seen.

Black and White Documentary Film Photography Photography Social Landscape Street Photography

1980s documentary photography film photography New York New York City street photography

Published February 2, 2021 by avardw

Toronto street photos from the 1980s

Toronto street photos, 1980s, — Nathan Phillips Square Toronto, 1982 – © Avard Woolaver

Here are some Toronto street photos from the 1980s. They are images that I scanned quite recently, and have not been previously posted or published. There is a certain satisfaction for me in re-discovering these photos that I took so long ago. They tell me a lot about how much the world has changed, and I myself have changed. And, conversely, they also remind me that so many basic things in the world remain unchanged.

As we cannot travel back in time, photographs are a way to come face to face with the past–to reconnect with it without actually going there. Photographs are also a good memory aid. There is so much information crammed into our brains that forty year old information can slip away very easily. It’s funny that I can remember very clearly taking some of these photos, yet others are a complete mystery. I only know that I must have taken it for a reason. A few photos in this post were taken for a school assignment at Ryerson called “Exploration of the frame” – new and novel ways to frame photos. I’m not sure if I succeeded.

These Toronto street photos bring me joy and feelings of nostalgia. It’s hard to separate them from the memories that surround them: good times with friends at school and at parties, endless hours in the darkroom, the joy of being young and alive with a head full of tunes.

Black and White Film Photography Photography Toronto

1980s black and white film photography street photography street photos Toronto

Published January 13, 2021 by avardw

Photos of Moscow in 1993

I spent a few days in Moscow in late June, 1993. My journey began in Kobe, Japan and a ferry ride to Shanghai, China. After that I made my way to Beijing where I caught the Trans-Siberian to Moscow. I had been working in Japan and decided to return to Canada heading westward across Asia and Europe, rather than the usual flight to Toronto.

My impressions of post-Soviet Russia were that it was generally run down and in disrepair. People in Moscow were quite friendly and welcoming, though some of them were suspicious of my picture taking. Shelves at the supermarkets were quite bare and my morning breakfast was lard on bread. I felt sorry for the women selling dogs and cats outside the train station, trying to earn a living. The economy was in rough shape and American dollars were preferred over Rubles. I got a drive across the city in an ambulance; the driver was earning extra money using it as a taxi. It seemed that the free enterprise system had yet to catch on. It also seemed to me like the wild west.

At the same time there was a great sense of art and history everywhere–amazing architecture and museums. The Moscow metro has some extravagantly designed stations such as Electrozavodskaya that resembles a museum rather than a subway station. In 1993 a metro fare was the equivalent of one cent. There were lots of buskers and street performers on the tourist filled Arbat Street. Some young people were playing American blues songs–a sense of the pervasiveness of American pop culture. I did some street photography there, as well as around the Kremlin.

1993 was the year of the Russian constitutional crisis— a political stand-off between the Russian president Boris Yeltsin and the Russian parliament that was resolved by military force. This took place in early October. The ten-day conflict became the deadliest single event of street fighting in Moscow’s history since the Russian Revolution–147 people were killed and 437 wounded. The country was in a state of drastic change.

Perhaps my photos don’t capture this sense of unrest and transition, but they serve as a document of life in Moscow a few years after the the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

More photos this series are in the Moscow 1993 menu. I will be posting colour photos from this series at a later date.