I enjoy reading and commenting on the work of other photographers on Substack, but it’s a delight to be able to chat in person. I recently had the opportunity to meet with two Toronto-based photographers I follow on Substack, Mark Foard and Marcello Mancuso. They are longtime Toronto residents and friends with a shared interest in photography. It’s been a long time since I lived in Toronto and my visits have been few and far between since I moved to New Zealand, so I appreciated learning about recent changes from two photographers who know the city and its streets well.
We met in Kensington Market, a popular historic neighbourhood bordered by College St. on the north, Dundas St. W. to the south, Bathurst St. to the west and Spadina Ave. on the east. Irish, Scottish, Jewish, Caribbean, and Chinese immigrants have made this a diverse and colourful area. Large‑scale redevelopment has been resisted and the area has been designated a National Historic Site in recognition of its multicultural significance. Although several shops have changed, the market is largely how I remembered it.
The Moonbean Coffee Company, Augusta Coffee Bar, and other popular cafés are still there. Courage My Love, Vintage Depot, and Bungalow are among the vintage clothing shops that have survived. Among other things, you can find hand‑beaded garments, 60s–90s vintage jackets and leather bags, retro sunglasses, small‑press poetry, quirky souvenirs, and indie pins, patches, and stickers.
We split up to photograph independently. We then had lunch at a Caribbean‑Italian restaurant before exploring streets further south and east.
We discussed the urban environment, stopping to photograph a life‑size bronze elephant outside the Art Gallery of Ontario, FORMA, the two‑tower Frank Gehry development rising on King Street West, and the dog fountain in Berczy Park behind the Flatiron Building on Wellington Street. I usually photograph alone, accustomed to seeing the world through the viewfinder in my own way. The photowalk with Mark and Marcello reminded me that there are many ways to photograph the same places and subjects. We can stand in the same place, in front of the same subject, but the images we make are as different as our individual histories, experiences, attitudes, and preferences.
You can read Mark Foard’s account of our Kensington Market meetup in his post: The 3M's Toronto Photowalk. We documented some of the same subjects and scenes but our results are quite different. I didn’t include photos of the other locations as I preferred the photos Mark captured, which you can see in his post.
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