The Image Journey Posts

Published October 7, 2022 by

Pizza With Pizzaz – 2022_10_07

pizzaz, self portrait, Toronto, pizza
Self Portrait, Toronto, 1980 – © Avard Woolaver

I try to put some pizzaz into my photos from time to time. This self portrait from 1980 does that quite literally. If you listen carefully to this photo, you can hear my stomach rumbling, anticipating a tasty pizza slice.

My personal favourite spot for a pizza slice was “John’s New York Pizza and Spaghetti Palace” at Danforth and Greenwood. I lived just around the corner, and went there often. (It disappeared quite suddenly in 2004.) After that it was Vesuvio’s, Pizza Gigi, Bitondo’s, and The Big Slice. I’m starting to get hungry!

Photography

1980s film photography pizzaz self portrait street photography Toronto

Published October 6, 2022 by

Parliament Street, Toronto – 2022_10_06

Parliament Street, Toronto
Parliament Street, Toronto, 1980 – © Avard Woolaver

Taken in the fall of 1980 on Parliament Street, Toronto, the photo shows three men talking in the doorway of a men’s clothing shop. The sign reads Canadian-made dress shoes: $29.95. This photo is previously unpublished.

Photography Toronto

1980s film photography Parliament Street street photography Toronto

Published October 5, 2022 by

Toronto, Spend Your Savings – 2022_10_05

Toronto, Spend Your Savings
Yonge Street, Toronto, 1981 – © Avard Woolaver

Taken on Yonge Street in the autumn of 1981, this photo always gives me a little chuckle. It features a very 1980s-looking garbage bin (trash receptacle), some sidewalk art, and the phrase: Spend Your $avings. Also, a cigarette butt and a few scattered leaves. The shadows cross the frame in an interesting way. It suits my mood at the moment as I listen to Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 experimental psychedelic album, After Bathing at Baxters, and sip cold coffee.

Spend Your Savings seems like both a demand and a plea. I laugh because I managed to do just that before leaving Toronto in 2005.

This photo appears in the photo book: Toronto Hi-Fi.

Photography

1980s film photography Spend Your Savings street photography Toronto

Published October 4, 2022 by

Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto – 2022_10_04

Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto, 1996 – © Avard Woolaver

Roncesvalles Avenue is one of my favourite areas of Toronto. I lived just west of there on Parkside Drive in the mid-1990s. The street is named after the Battle of Roncesvalles, which took place in the Roncesvalles Pass in Spain in 1813. (In Spanish the name ‘Roncesvalles’ means ‘valley of thorns’.)

Culturally, the area is known as the centre of the Polish community in Toronto with prominent Polish institutions, businesses and St Casimir’s Catholic Church. When I lived there in the 1990s there were lots of Polish restaurants and bakeries, as well as two second-run movie theatres–The Revue, and The Brighton. It was a really vibrant place, and probably still is.

This photo was taken diptych-style, a technique I still use to highlight juxtaposition. It appears in the photo book: Toronto Hi-Fi.

Photography

1990s film photography Roncesvalles Avenue street photography Toronto

Published October 3, 2022 by

Hip To Be Square – 2022_10_03

Square format
Carlton Street, Toronto, 1980 – © Avard Woolaver

In my first few months in Toronto in 1980, I used a square format, twin lens reflex (TLR) camera–the Yashica-Mat 124G. The camera is held at waist level and you look down into the viewfinder, it is a unique perspective as usually cameras such as the SLR are held up at eye level. Famed outsider photographer Vivian Maier used a TLR camera for much of her work. The low angle gives her street portraits a more noble, stately look. Sometimes it’s hip to be square!

I recently purchased a new scanner–an Epson V600, and at last can scan the medium format negatives that I shot in Toronto many years ago. I find that I’m remembering my 22 year old self.

Photography Toronto

1980s 6x6 Epson V600 scanner film photography square format Toronto Yashica-Mat 124G