Boat Waiting (September, 1998)

Loch Lomond, Cape Breton. A mild Labour Day weekend, and a fine drizzle enjoyed whilst waiting for a lift over to an island.

Loch Lomond, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Joseph & Kim (September, 1996)

Taken in a classroom at Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax (before they knocked it down, which was a few years ago I think).

In the photography courses I took, we were always warned against both excessive contrast (between light and shadow), and the lurking scourge of graininess. These two things tended to go hand in hand, effects that could be produced by over-development of the film (for too long and/or at too high a temperature), over-exposure or otherwise incorrect judgment of lighting when shooting, and probably myriad other technical slip-ups. The higher your chosen ISO, the more likely graininess would result; and some films tended more towards this than others.

As you might guess, I'm about to say "pshaw" to all that, in describing the picture above as one of my favourites; I love it when "rules" get broken, and I think most of my best photos (many of the best photos, in general) involve something of that kind. Yes, of course the window lacks a "textured white" (the light end of the desired spectrum of tones in a well-exposed, well-printed black and white photo). Yes, it's over-exposed, but without that it would lack the dreamy glow that I so enjoy. I didn't even try making a print using "burning" to darken the window area. That light works so well with the facial expressions--these two seem as if they are each off in a little private reverie. And yes, I was probably using Agfa 400 ISO B&W film, and thus basically asking to be handed a dish of grainy contrast for lunch, but: it was cheap, I was in high school, and I still love this picture.

Heathrow (May 12, 2007)

Here I was waiting for my flight to Milan--actually I think I was waiting for the announcement of the gate I needed to go to in order to get my flight. Heathrow has an odd (and somewhat unnerving) system of disseminating this information. In general, departure gates are not listed until relatively close to the time the plane leaves, and since I am paranoid about plane travel anyway, this tends to prevent me from ever really relaxing.

In this picture I think I am also showing (to myself, if not to others) the "pattern" of airports, their apparent replicability. I think this is something Manuel Castells discusses in The Rise of the Network Society. Airports are international spaces, and they all tend to look the same; much like shopping malls and university campuses, in fact. I don't think it is simply a similarity of form based on function. But the result is that on long journeys, when passing through several airports, one sees a lot of the same (with a few pleasant quirks from time to time; yes, I took that train and yes, there are moo'ing sounds).

This photo shows something of that repetition, for me--the tiredness that permeates the travellers' postures, the darkness that hides their faces, hinting at their anonymity in this "space of (human) flows" (even in this most-surveilled, most securitised space); and the light that shows only the view of planes from the window--which can't really be "placed" either, which could not be singled out as "England" if viewed in a line-up with any five airports from anywhere.

Ross Building South, 5th Floor (October 30, 2006)

This vaguely disturbing shot is of the interior of one of York University's largest buildings, the infamous (Gilliam-esque? Weberian nightmarish? Ayn Rand's dream of spatial efficiency?) Ross Building, wherein the Linguistics and Languages department (pictured) is located. In other words, this was where I spent a good deal of time during the 12 months in which I worked on my Master's Degree in Linguistics (September 2006-August 2007).

I've always found it ironic that these kinds of blank, uninviting institutional spaces are supposed to support educational success, that they constitute an 'educational environment' (only by virtue of designation, if you ask me). This floor of the Ross building shows a total lack of consideration for the spatial elements of social and scholarly relations; though York in general suffers from a good deal of under-consideration in this area. Even the in building where my current program is housed, which was renovated shortly before I began my Ph.D, the same problems prevail. Not only was this exact uninviting design utilised (a deficit of social space in any area where people are likely to move through it regularly), but the graduate students' area was moved into the basement.

Another example of this under-consideration is that of my weekly teaching assignment last year. This consisted of one 34-person tutorial, fifty minutes long, held in a small lecture theatre with seats arranged in rows facing the front of the room and sloping upward towards the back--all seats bolted to the floor, naturally. How there could be any notion of a room such as this being sufficient for a small group discussion is beyond me, but these are the kinds of issues that may only seem significant to those who end up having to resolve them first-hand.

Lucas on the Train (July, 1997)

Lucas and I cashed in our copious VIA Rail credits with a one-day trip to Montréal, during which I (of course) too far too many train pictures. In this one, I somehow managed to get the light on the back of the compartment wall to halo around Lucas' head such that it forms an outline there, created by the contrast against the unlit background. We're actually not sitting in seats in this picture, but in a lower berth designed for overnight sleeping.

"Live" Crabs & Lobsters (February, 2002)

This somewhat suspicious-looking storefront sign was spotted in Victoria, British Columbia. What on earth could have possessed these proprietors to place the word "Live" in quotation marks-? The implications are bizarre and off-putting, to say the least.

St. Laurent & Marie-Anne Est, (November, 2000)

Plateau-Mont Royal, Montréal. This picture brings back some fond memories of my Canadian "home-town" during my favourite season. Looking forward to heading back in October for a reunion!

La Fête Nationale du Québec (June 23/24 (?), 2000)

Taken on Québec's "national holiday", at Parc-Nature de l'Île-de-la-Visitation, in Montréal. The park is one of a network of "large parks" in Montréal, which also includes Bois-de-l’Île-Bizard nature park on Lac des Deux Montagnes, and parc-nature du Bois-de-Liesse.

While living in Montréal, I often took buses to these "large parks" to explore; urban parks of significant size were an unfamiliar phenomenon for me, and Montréal has quite a few, as well as (of course) the downtown parcs Mont-Royal and LaFontaine. I enjoyed the sense of being "outside" the city even while within it.

Jane Street & East Drive (Sunday, September 6, 2009)

I took this while waiting for the bus last night, after Nathan's backyard BBQ/house-warming get-together. It took six or seven shots before I found a way to keep the camera steady enough (every other shot was blurred, of course, thanks to the low light). Of course, once I saw that the bright full moon would make it into the image, I had to persist until I conquered the lighting conditions. I thought the result was worth it; the moon, hanging in the upper left-hand corner of the picture, looks like some larger, higher-up version of the lights attached to the building, an effect I'd hoped for.

Pretty Bears (June 26, 2005)

Taken, naturally, at Toronto Pride (while waiting for the parade to begin). There's nothing like a bear in a dress to get the party started.

Sadly, I can't recall the make/model of the camera I used, nor any of the technical details of its capacity.