Casse-Croûte (April, 2001)

Casse-Croûte in Québec, on the highway between Montréal and Québec City.

For some reason I always enjoyed these cheap snacks that were so popular in Québec. I remember the restaurant chain La Belle Province in particular, with its "steamies" (steamed hot-dogs, popular in Montréal) topped with onions and "chou" (vinaigrette coleslaw), and the ubiquitous and slightly soggy "frites". And poutine, of course--always poutine!

Front Porch, National Gallery (August, 2004)

From the portico of the National gallery there is a lovely view out over Trafalgar Square and down towards Whitehall--in this picture you can see Big Ben in the distance, and Nelson's Column to the right. Here, the summer sun creates an extreme contrast, backlighting the visitors standing at the railing enjoying the view.

Stop Voldemort (October 24, 2007)

Spotted on the wall of Winters College residence at York University. Quite the classic piece of Hallowe'en-related graffiti.

S.V.P. Ramassez (November, 2001)

One of the funniest (evidently home-made) signs I have ever seen. I spotted it in an alley on the Plateau in Montréal while walking over to Scott's apartment, and had to stop and take a picture.

The sign says "please pick up [your dog droppings]", the verb ramasser meaning "to pick up, to gather". At the top of the sign is also the warning "Attention Danger Public", the meaning of which is fairly obvious. I love this clever mimicry of the usual warning signs that one sees around cities.

Statue, University Ave (November, 1998)

Calgary from the Air (February 14, 2002)

This was a fantastic day to be up in a plane taking photographs, as a previous post also shows.

Maple Flowers (May, 2005)

When I lived on Queen Street in Hamilton, each spring, thousands of these small flowers would sprinkle down from above, shed by the large trees around the house. I remember being irritated by the rapidity with which a layer of flowers would accumulate on the paved area where we had a table and chairs. I think I did eventually give up on sweeping them out of the way.

Still the Centre (10 July, 2009)

In the paved area around and in front of the O2 Dome in London, there are a number of paving stones with text on them, some of which refer to the history of astronomy (one has the date that John Flamsteed established the meridian and GMT at Greenwich). Others seem random, such as one with the date "1924" and the words "pip, pip, pip..." underneath. The stones follow the line of the Greenwich Meridian, from which time is measured forward and backward around the globe and from which longitude can be determined.

I took several pictures of different texts on the ground before finding this one. In this picture a portion of the text is visible clearly within the boundaries of the shadow, my figure, on the ground--cast by midday sun (it was almost 1pm GMT, the moment when the Time Ball at Greenwich would drop). To me the Eurocentrism of the claim is interesting as an underlying theme of the picture, because there is also the suggestion of the body or the subject--to get theoretical--as the "centre of space and time" as well, or even of the "human" as the centre of the natural world.

Hey Song (December 12 (?), 2000)

Taken at the Chiang Kai Shek International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan. This was a relatively brief stop during which the plane was re-fueled after a 17-hour flight over the Pacific from Los Angeles. A number of people also left the plane at this point, while others boarded, on their way to Kuala Lumpur (as I was). The stop was, however, long enough that I got bored and took a picture of this vending machine, which looked rather foreign to me.

I remember that during the wait in this airport I sat opposite a Buddhist monk, who wore a woolen cap on his head as well as the requisite robes (it was of course still winter, since we had not yes crossed the equator into the southern hemisphere). Seeing a small Canadian flag pin on my backpack, the monk attempted to start a conversation with me--in French!

Peppers (August, 2002)

Hot peppers drying on the back porch of a friend's house in Montréal. it's amazing how much they look like they are made of plastic--ah, the simulacrum...