Toronto in B&W
I first moved to Toronto in 2015 and felt in love with the city almost immediately. Over the years, I have moved away and moved back several times but the city - the 6ix as it is colloquially known - still holds a special place in my heart.
Emblematic of the urban, cosmopolitan polity of the 21st century, Toronto features a diverse population, an incredible array of global cuisine, a vibrant sport, art, and cultural life, and countless other attractions and distractions. It is also the unfolding scene of intense gentrification, around-the-clock financialization, wealth inequality, and the trifecta of unaffordable housing, food insecurity, and drugs and addiction crisis. But after years of grappling with the hustle and bustle of Toronto, sometimes I wonder what do this city and its people look like to first-time visitor, and whether that first impression is similar or different from my own experience.
I got a glimpse of an answer to those questions when my friend Emily visited from Massachusetts in January 2023. After her visit, Emily shared with me a series of black and white photos that she had taken of Toronto, from the City airport that she flew in to my neighborhood in the West end of downtown where she stayed, and everything in between. I am familiar with almost all of these places, people, and scenes and yet through Emily’s eyes, they appeared illuminatingly different. Her choice of developing them into black and white photos reminds me of the dark, gritty side of urban life, masqueraded behind the neon brightness of consumerism.
Some have said that Torontonians are workaholics because we live to work. Others say we work hard and play hard. In this city, do we ever learn to rest? Or is this the case that even in our “down time,” we are still seemingly gripped by the need to keep moving lest we are left behind? If the grinding gears that power this city never truly stop, what or who power those gears ?
