June 15th, 2008

I've done no photography this week as I've been writing. So I've reached back into the vault and pulled out a this of image of the Fairmount Royal York Hotel taken as a storm was brewing. It reminds me of the Batman movies. Enjoy.

Pushing My Buttons

Last week at Buskerfest, I stopped and chatted with a vendor who made buttons using panels from old comic books and magazines, which is pretty neat. Back in the 80s, at the height of the button craze, I decorated my favourite oversized tweed jacket with nearly a dozen buttons featuring everything from album artwork to the original Macintosh line art. To this day, I am fascinated by cool buttons and in my middle age, I've gone back to sporting them on my favourite jackets.

This snapshot is a sample of some of the buttons that were on display last week:

Cyclist on Queen Street West

One of the challenges of street photography is getting your camera settings right. This isn't always possible, especially if you're paying attention to one thing and something entirely different but much more interesting suddenly happens in your peripheral vision. You may find yourself swinging around and going from photographing a still life to capturing motion and there's not enough time to adjust. So you point the camera, press the shutter button and hope for the best.

Pierre St. Pierre and Photographers' Rights

This is Pierre St. Pierre (a.k.a. Roland Gritanni) who performed at this year's Buskerfest. St. Pierre is essentially a human jukebox who stands motionless on his pedestal with fingers poised over his accordion. When a passer-by drops change into his donation box, Monsieur St. Pierre comes to life and, with precise robotic movements, plays an all-too-human melody on his instrument.

The performer had posted signs stating that photography is by donation only and that those creating a video recording of the performance request his permission first. I find this more than fair and was glad to slip him a few coins for the privilege of snapping the following snap. But dozens of photographers failed to fulfill this simple request and I found that rather galling.

In this climate wherein our rights as photographers are beset upon by corporations, merchants, overzealous security guards and even passers-by (the classic "why are you taking my picture?" coming from somebody when I'm pointing the camera in the opposite direction comes immediately to mind), such simple guidance from a performer is not only appreciated but welcome. I feel truly bad that so many photographers failed to drop anything into this man's coffers. After all, if we are to be respected as a group, we must be respectful when others make such an effort to address us directly.

Welcome to the Porta-Mall (Buskerfest '08)

I'm getting that sense of déjà vu: that been there, done that, bought the overpriced t-shirt feeling that hits when I find myself in shopping malls or when I’m driving past the umpteenth complex of big box stores that dot the 401. It’s not a comfortable or comforting thought: I’m being sold the same old junk by the same people, except that I’m not in a shopping centre: I’m out on Toronto’s Front Street ostensibly enjoying Buskerfest, a four-day-long public festival dedicated to street performers from around the world.



Sure, the whole thing receives massive corporate sponsorship. There are bank and TV network logos plastered everywhere. And I can live with that. After all, I’m savvy enough to see past the barrage of advertising and I do ascribe to the notion that the wealthiest segments of our society (be they individuals or corporations) should pay to bring art to the masses. But I can’t see the artists for the all the junk for sale. For every performance space there are at least a dozen merchandise tents. Buskerfest, it seems, is not so much an festival of the arts as it is an open air shopping mall.



And just as your typical mall has a standard set of vendors hawking a standard set of wares, Buskerfest features the stalwarts of the urban street fair scene. Here’s your purveyor of mass-produced African sculptures. There, there and there are your sellers of “handmade” jewellery assembled with store-bought beads and baubles. Walk half a block for crappy five-dollar sun glasses. Stop at the corner for made-in-China hempware that has nothing to do with sustainable development. You get the picture. Food and merchandise vendors line either side of the street and the bulk of pedestrian traffic on the closed-off thoroughfare gravitates to these tents. Sadly, it seems, the urge to shop is far greater in most people than the desire to witness a performance.

The Old and the New

Once upon a time, Levi's were the dress uniform of the working poor. These days they're just another luxury item sold through a chain of brand-specific stores in shopping malls around the world. The image below, snapped just west of Toronto's Eaton Centre (a shopping complex that spans an entire city block) shows the contrast between the old and the new. The ad on the side of the bus shelter romances affluent buyers with a nostalgic and highly-glamourized image of a working man (playing on the iconography of Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire) while the stolen shopping cart containing a homeless person's possessions reveals the reality of urban poverty today.

Summer Games

And I don't mean the Beijing Olympics (which are nothing more than a two week infomercial for pharmaceuticals and crappy consumer goods) but the games people play in towns and cities around the world. In most places, the game of choice is soccer, which is ever more popular in North America. The pictures below were taken in a nearby park. The second one features players who have repurposed the outfield of a baseball diamond as there is no soccer pitch at this facility. These images are meant to convey the joy of play which is sadly absent in the increasingly commercialized and ever less meaningful Olympics.