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  • Archives

  • December23rd

    First Impressions with Maxine Bailey

    Posted in: Articles, General

    I have been collaborating on projects with Heritage Toronto for several years now – mostly with the popular annual Building Storeys photography project. This underfunded and understaffed Toronto agency that advocates for and promotes the preservation of our city’s rapidly vanishing heritage produces free public programs such as the popular Heritage Walks and iTours, maintains an online heritage map, runs the Heritage Toronto Legacy Plaques program, and produce the Heritage Toronto Awards each year.

    Since 2009, they’ve been collaborating with the Toronto Arts Foundation and RBC on the First Impressions: Telling Toronto’s Stories project  - a series of TTC posters highlighting historical and contemporary artists and their first impressions of Toronto.

    When they asked me if I could shoot the most recent artist portrait for the series I was more than happy to participate in such a creative and inspiring program. Past artists have included Pierre Berton, Richard Fung (video artist and cultural critic), Juliet Palmer (composer), and Harry Rasky (journalist), among others.

    To this list, we can now add Maxine Bailey – cultural maven:

    (Maxine Bailey by Olena Sullivan, Kensington Market by Tanja Tiziana)

    “The visual sounds of Toronto have always brought my family
    together. When we rst arrived we would venture down to
    Kensington Market to pick up the makings of a West Indian
    dinner for holiday gatherings. The mix of cultures, smells and
    sounds were inspiring; vendors hawking fresh produce and
    livestock from around the world, bicycles, cars and people all
    weaving the fabric of a community.”
    - Maxine Bailey, Cultural Maven. Born in Barbados, came to Toronto via England in 1971.

  • February2nd

    Building Storeys 2010

    Posted in: Articles, Projects

    CNR Building

    Limited Edition Series: 20

    In 2009, a group of photographers partnered with Heritage Toronto to document – in an artistic way – some of Toronto’s historic but often-forgotten architectural gems. The end result was a week-long exhibit at the Gladstone Hotel during Heritage Week in February entitled Building Storeys: A Photographic Exhibit of Toronto’s Aging Spaces. It was supported by a series of articles on spacing.ca – one per week in January leading up to the show – showcasing some of the more interesting locations. At the time, we wanted it to be a good show – a great show really – but never expected it to garner the attention and press that it did.

    In two days, we will be opening our second installment of Building Storeys – this year subtitled A Photographic Exhibit of Toronto’s Industrial Past. It’s been quite a learning experience and we’ve streamlined some of the coordination of the show – thanks in a huge way to the addition of Toni Wallachy‘s project management skills. With this being an industrial-themed show, we’ve also added two great industrial photographers to the project – Sean Galbraith and Mathew Merrett of the DK Photo Group. You may know them from their show on Bravo! Canada – PhotoXplorers. The group is rounded out by members of the Shadow Collective – Timothy Neesam (an excellent UE photographer), Rick Harris (another great UE photographer all the way from Whitby), Robert Dyke (a long-time industrial and UE photog) and myself. And of course, there were the tireless staff of Heritage Toronto – Rebecca Carson who tirelessly managed the project, Kim Adlard who approached sponsorship and contracts like a tiger, Peggy Mooney who helped us get into these locations, and Gary Miedema the font of all historical knowledge.

    The locations we were able to shoot this year were phenomenal and each provided us with different stories of Toronto’s industrial past: RC Harris, the Wellington Destructor, Ashbridges Bay Water Treatment Plant, Canada Linseed, Toronto Island Water Plant, and many others.

    Come and read the history of Toronto’s industrial growth and see the photographic interpretations of a dozen truly interesting locations by 7 great photographers at Building Storeys 2010: A Photographic Exhibit of Toronto’s Industrial Past. It’s on at the Gladstone Hotel, Queen W & Gladstone, February 4-27, noon-5pm daily. Please check the News page to see exhibit updates.

    Additional information about the show and the artists can be found at www.buildingstoreys.com

    Additional photos from my photo shoots at the 12 locations can be found on my Flickr site.

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