I took a lot of photographs in my early years in Toronto in the 1980s, capturing street scenes and ordinary aspects of daily life that happened to catch my eye. I had no way to anticipate how significant these Toronto photos would seem to me 40 years later. They show things that no longer exist, even though it hasn’t been that long. Without necessarily trying to, I caught images of buildings, cars, fashions, gadgets that are no longer part of our world. Toronto’s entire skyline is utterly changed, part of the inevitable growth and evolution. So, I thought I’d go back and rephotograph some of the scenes to highlight these changes in the topography of the city. It was both fun and challenging, trying to find the spot where a photo was taken 40 years earlier, using the same focal length. It took me back to familiar places like Yonge Street, Queen Street, and the Junction.
Here is a sneak peak at my upcoming photography exhibit at the Viewpoint Gallery in Bedford, Nova Scotia, July 4-28, 2024.
In November 2023, I traveled to Toronto for the opening of “Hickox, Pahwa, Woolaver – Scenes from Toronto,” an exhibit at the City of Toronto Archives. The showfeatures photos from the 1980s to the late 2000s, and explores how contemporary artists capture the ever-changing city. The reception was well attended and I had a chance to meet some interesting people, including Patrick Cummins–a former City of Toronto archivist.
My portion of the exhibit is a digital slide show with 250 images on 90 slides. The slides are shown at 7 second intervals. They are drawn from my collection of 700 digital images contained in the archives–primarily street photographs taken in the 1980s. There are also two vinyl enlargements of a street scene, and a phone booth on the wall beside the monitor. The curator of the exhibit, Naoise Dunne, did a wonderful job sequencing the images and identifying themes in my work. It an honour to have my photos in the City of Toronto Archives and I’ll mark this as a highlight in my photographic journey.
April Hickox’s photography documents the unique landscape of Toronto Island and seasonal changes.Vik Pahwa captures the city’s built environment, focusing on forms and shapes, creating abstract images. The three digital slide shows encourage viewers to explore the city through the photographers’ perspective and picture-making methods.
A second exhibit, “If These Walls Could Talk – Researching the history of where you live,” focuses on the unique stories of 11 homes. The exhibit opened on October 19, 2023 and runs until August 2024.
Monday to Friday, 9 a.m – 4 p.m. Free entry
City of Toronto Archives
255 Spadina Rd.
Toronto, ON M5R 2V3
Promo poster for “Hickox, Pahwa, Woolaver – Scenes from Toronto”
I was fortunate to have a portfolio of my 1980s Toronto photos in the 2023 Pingyao International Photography Festival. The festival ran from September 19th to 25th in Pingyao, North China’s Shanxi province. Themed “New Light, New Orientation,” the six-day festival attracted 13,961 works by over 2,000 photographers from 28 countries.
Photo courtesy of China Daily
Curator Don Snyder invited eight photographers to be part of “Image, Document, Memory: Photographs from Canada.” Here is his introduction to the exhibit:
Image, Document, Memory: Photographs from Canada
While thinking about images for the 2023 Pingyao Festival, my first goal was to select work that would be new to the audience in Pingyao. I also wanted to represent approaches to image-making that would range from traditional to highly experimental, and to exhibit photographs from many different parts of Canada.
I considered nearly 50 portfolios and selected eight photographers to invite. While their photographic styles are very different, common themes can be found that link the various portfolios together. Every photographer I spoke with told me they had been deeply affected by the pandemic, and that they had often turned to more personal image-making during this time. This is where the theme of “The Poetic Image” originated, exemplified by the photographs included here from Kendall Townend, Pierre Tremblay and Alexander Alter. These images deal with landscape, time and memory, and the inner workings of the imagination, utilizing methods and processes that blend the uniquely photographic with the composite, layered, and digital imagery.
Many photographers talked about developing a new appreciation for the workers in manufacturing and transportation–workers who kept people everywhere supplied and fed during times of lockdown. This is where the idea to include the portfolios about “Labor and Commerce” originated. Images from Workspace Canada, by Martin Weinhold, and 23 Days at Sea, by Christopher Boyne were chosen for this component of the exhibition.
For the portfolios in Part III, “Place and Culture”, several photographers I spoke with had found themselves reviewing personal archives and images from past years during the pandemic, drawn to explore photography’s unique ability to juxtapose past and present time. The sequences in this group were selected from Toronto Days and Toronto Flashback by Avard Woolaver, and from Kensington Market: Meditations on Home by Wayne Salmon. These portfolios examine the relationships between memory and present time, and between place and a sense of belonging.
Lastly, as an educator I was keenly aware of the changes the pandemic brought to the world of art education. “Making and Thinking: The Idea of a Photographic Workshop” is a group project produced by my colleague Rob Davidson and his students in a situation where they were unable to meet for in-person classes. The images made during this online workshop, available in either book or exhibition form, point to new possibilities for photographic education in an environment of networked communication, and make a strong case for this mode of teaching in the future.
Don Snyder
Here are the photos as they appeared in the exhibition:
Recently 700 of my photos (digital images) were added to the City of Toronto Archives. It’s a real honour, and a good feeling, knowing that my 1980s street photos will be kept for future generations. Many thanks to Michele Dale, the supervisor of collection management and standards at the City of Toronto Archives, for seeing the merit in my work.
The above photo is one of my favourites from the archives collection.
In those days I worked near Queen and River. I’d ride my bicycle home along Queen Street and sometimes stop in at Tower Records, put on the headphones and listen to Summer Side of Life by Gordon Lightfoot. I’d be transported into a beautiful musical world.
When look at this photo, I think about light, and life, and the miracle of just being alive and being able to experiencing things. I also think about Toronto music: “Lost Together” by Blue Rodeo, “Spirit of Radio” by Rush, “Lovers In A Dangerous Time” by Bruce Cockburn, “Bobcaygeon” by The Tragically Hip; songs by Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, or Neil Young. These are songs that run through my mind when I look at this photo and think about that time in my life. I’m nostalgic for those Toronto days.
Here is a link to the collection. (Fonds 620; Avard Woolaver fonds) Scroll down and click: “browse,” and you can see the photos. I think they represent my strongest work, and there are several that have never been published previously. Hope you enjoy them!
This photo, taken outside the Sears Warehouse in Toronto in 1980, brings to mind the song “Working Man” by Rush and the wonderful work of American photographer Harry Callahan.
The Sears Warehouse, located near Church and Dundas, was converted into lofts in the late 1990s and is now called the Merchandise Building. The original building was built in various stages from 1910 to 1949 for the Simpson’s department store, and was later owned by Sears Canada. It is an example of the Chicago School style of architecture.
