22nd floor for the CONTACT Photography Festival exhibit

Bob ended up at one of those Toronto places that feels like you accidentally walked into the future. One minute I was on Dundas Street West with streetcars rattling by, construction crews everywhere, people carrying coffees like they were in a race against Monday morning, and the next minute I was heading up to the 22nd floor for the CONTACT Photography Festival exhibit.

The funny part is that the elevator ride almost felt longer than some TTC trips. You go up and up and suddenly Toronto changes below you. The city noise disappears and all you see are towers, cranes, streetcars and tiny little people moving around Dundas like ants in a giant city model.

The exhibit space itself looked half gallery and half unfinished office tower. Exposed ceilings. Concrete floors. Empty rooms. Giant windows wrapping around the building. Honestly, it looked like the perfect place for photographers because the building itself was already a photo subject before you even looked at the art on the walls.

I kept thinking this is the kind of place where developers probably stand around saying things like “creative workspace opportunity,” while photographers stand there going, “Wow… look at that light.”

The views were unbelievable.

You could see the downtown core stretching out forever. Condo towers in every direction. Streetcars sliding down Dundas Street like red pencils drawing lines through the city. Hospitals, cranes, old brick buildings squeezed between shiny condos — basically modern Toronto in one giant frame.

And of course Bob spent half the time photographing the view instead of the actual exhibit.

Classic Bob move.

There were these huge open empty floors with photographs mounted on temporary walls and columns. The emptiness actually made the photos stronger. No distractions. Just giant prints floating in this raw unfinished space high above the city.

At one point I looked across the room and saw two lonely black chairs sitting in the middle of this massive floor. It looked like an art installation itself. In Toronto you never know what is the exhibit and what was just left there by the cleaning crew.

One of the things I liked most was how the exhibit matched the city outside the windows. Toronto is always rebuilding itself. Cranes everywhere. Towers going up. Streets change every year. Then inside the exhibit you have photographers freezing moments in time before the world changes again.

That is what I always like about photography.

The city keeps moving but the photo says:
“Hold on a second… this existed.”

I also had one of those moments standing by the windows where I realized how much of Toronto I have photographed over the years. From laneways and protests to hockey fans and construction workers to weird moments on the TTC. Then here I am on the 22nd floor looking down at the same streets again from a completely different angle.

Street photography from above.

Maybe that is Bob’s next camera club category:
“Very Tall Street Photography.”

The funniest thing is most people walking around the exhibit looked very serious. Quiet art gallery faces. Thinking deep photography thoughts.

Meanwhile Bob is standing at the window going:
“Look at that streetcar shot down there.”

Honestly though, this is why Toronto is such a great city for photography. You can walk into an old alley, a subway station, a protest, a park, or a giant empty office tower turned photo gallery and every place has a completely different feeling.

The CONTACT Photography Festival always reminds me that photography is everywhere in this city. Not just in galleries, but outside the windows too.

And somewhere down on Dundas Street, another photographer was probably standing on the sidewalk taking a photo of the building I was standing inside.

That’s Toronto.