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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

Been reading Susan Sontag's 'On Photography'.

A bit heavy going at times, somewhat unstructured and circuitous. It's a literary work with no bibliography, just her viewpoints. Here's a nugget: 'It is not reality that photographs make immediately accessible, but images. For example, now all adults can know exactly how they and their parents and grandparents looked as children - a knowledge not available to anyone before the invention of cameras...' If one substitutes 'our early city of Toronto' for 'parents and grandparents' the example is just as applicable.

The last chapter of the book is 'A Brief Anthology of Quotations'. Here's an example: 'The daguerreotypes of all things are preserved... the imprints of all that has existed live, spread out through the diverse zones of infinite space. - Ernest Renan.'

Hooo-kay, back to the pictures. :)



Then and Now for Jan 5.


Then. 25 Grenville Street. c1918. 'Antique and Art Galleries of B.M. & T. Jenkins.'

33925GrenvilleStc1918.jpg



Now. August 2011. Yes, it's a facade...

340.jpg



Stay tuned for a big surprise about this structure in tomorrows Then and Now. :)


.
 
Mustapha said:
Been reading Susan Sontag's 'On Photography'.

A bit heavy going at times, somewhat unstructured and circuitous. It's a literary work with no bibliography, just her viewpoints. Here's a nugget: 'It is not reality that photographs make immediately accessible, but images. For example, now all adults can know exactly how they and their parents and grandparents looked as children - a knowledge not available to anyone before the invention of cameras...' If one substitutes 'our early city of Toronto' for 'parents and grandparents' the example is just as applicable.

The last chapter of the book is 'A Brief Anthology of Quotations'. Here's an example: 'The daguerreotypes of all things are preserved... the imprints of all that has existed live, spread out through the diverse zones of infinite space. - Ernest Renan.'
Click to expand...


Sontag's views are worth examining.

A few of my favourite photography quotes:

If I knew how to take a good photograph, I'd do it every time. - Robert Doisneau
If you see something that moves you, and then snap it, you keep a moment. - Linda McCartney
Of course it's all luck. - Henri Cartier-Bresson
 
Goldie said:
Sontag's views are worth examining.

A few of my favourite photography quotes:

If I knew how to take a good photograph, I'd do it every time. - Robert Doisneau
If you see something that moves you, and then snap it, you keep a moment. - Linda McCartney
Of course it's all luck. - Henri Cartier-Bresson
Click to expand...

Ok Goldie, game on..

An object that tells of the loss, destruction, disappearance of objects. Does not speak of itself. Tells of others. Will it include them? - Jasper Johns

These people live again in print as intensely as as when their images were captured on the old dry plates of sixty years ago. ...I am walking in their alleys, standing in their rooms and sheds and workshops, looking in and out of their windows. -Ansel Adams, from the preface to Jacob A. Riis: Photographer & Citizen.
 
"If you want to be famous, you have to do whatever you're doing worse than anyone else in the whole world."
- Miroslav Tichy, Czech photographer who uses homemade cameras

When asked how he was capable of getting such amazing images on a consistent basis, Arthur (Weegee) Fellig replied: “Simple. f/8 and be there.”
 
'If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug a camera.' - Lewis Hine.


:)


Then and now for Jan 6.


Yesterday I mentioned: 'Stay tuned for a big surprise about this structure in tomorrows Then and Now.' Well, yesterdays tomorrow is upon us today, and my surprise this morning is... the SOUTH portion of yesterdays 'Antique and Art Galleries of B.M. & T. Jenkins.' This SOUTH portion fronted onto College Street. So,.. the Jenkins building spanned the width of the block between College and Grenville.

I know, I know, try to contain your glee, excitement, delight and surprise. Today's Then picture as well as yesterdays was provided by intrepid UTer wwwebster.




Then. 'Antique and Art Galleries of B.M. & T. Jenkins.' c1918. 28 College Street.

34150028Collegec1918.jpg



Now. August 2011.

342.jpg
 
Mustapha said:
Then and now for Jan 6.


Well, yesterdays tomorrow is upon us today,


Then. 'Antique and Art Galleries of B.M. & T. Jenkins.' c1918. 28 College Street.

34150028Collegec1918.jpg
Click to expand...
Wow, what a great structure!

"Tommorow never comes man. As we learned on the bus, it's all the same f***ing day!" Janis Joplin
 
Mustapha said:
Then and Now for Jan 5.


Then. 25 Grenville Street. c1918. 'Antique and Art Galleries of B.M. & T. Jenkins.'

33925GrenvilleStc1918.jpg


Now. August 2011. Yes, it's a facade...
Click to expand...

Mustapha said:
Then and now for Jan 6.

Yesterday I mentioned: 'Stay tuned for a big surprise about this structure in tomorrows Then and Now.' Well, yesterdays tomorrow is upon us today, and my surprise this morning is... the SOUTH portion of yesterdays 'Antique and Art Galleries of B.M. & T. Jenkins.' This SOUTH portion fronted onto College Street. So,.. the Jenkins building spanned the width of the block between College and Grenville.

I know, I know, try to contain your glee, excitement, delight and surprise. Today's Then picture as well as yesterdays was provided by intrepid UTer wwwebster.




Then. 'Antique and Art Galleries of B.M. & T. Jenkins.' c1918. 28 College Street.

34150028Collegec1918.jpg
Click to expand...

Interesting - and it was originally a facadectomy built over/on top of/around that house that was still there?

1913.jpg


1924.jpg
 
I don't know if I've mentioned this already but the Toronto Telegram pictures at York University have been increased greatly in size and resolution.

http://pi.library.yorku.ca/dspace/handle/10315/1478/browse?type=subject

They were obviously taken for journalistic purposes, as opposed to the 'building record/street scenes/elites-at-play/visiting dignitaries' slant of the Toronto Archive pictures so they make for a different study experience. They are mostly from the the 1950s and 60s, an era we haven't covered in depth in this thread.
 
Last edited:
Photographers have unique views of the world, don't you think?

"If your picture isn't good enough, you're not close enough."
- Robert Capa

"You don't take a photograph, you make it!"
- Ansel Adams

"Photography has the capacity to provide images of man and his environment that are both works of art and moments in history."
- Cornell Capa

"The camera doesn't make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But you have to SEE!"
- Ernst Haas
 
Anna said:
Interesting - and it was originally a facadectomy built over/on top of/around that house that was still there?

1913.jpg


1924.jpg
Click to expand...

Looks like it,.. and interesting how in your two maps: Bay street has been pushed north,.. and todays Laplante Avenue used to be called Emma street.
 
Mustapha said:
Cool, I'll go have a look. Didn't know this. Are the remnants on the Grenville or College sides? Thanks adma.
Click to expand...

They're inside the through-passageway (is it still a through-passageway?) from College to Grenville--bits of disembodied gables and bays and half-timbering, a lot of it now painted red as part of the native-centre conversion...
 
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