Toronto Street Impressions, 2023

July 1, 2023, was Canada Day. The air outside was terrible, filled with an acrid, unpleasant smell. Heeding the environmental authorities’ advice to limit outdoor activity, I decided to spend the day seeing exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Sculptures everywhere…

My main reason for visiting the Art Gallery of Ontario this time was the Wolfgang Tillmans photography exhibition. I will write about the exhibition separately.

To my eyes, young women who love photography will always be the most beautiful…

Every holiday finds parents rushing their children from place to place, afraid they might meet too few people and see too little of the world.

Children’s circumstances vary from one family to another. As the old saying goes, a child with a mother is a treasure,

while a motherless child is like a blade of grass.

To animal lovers, meanwhile, every cat and dog is a treasure.

Posters searching for this beloved cat had been put up all over the neighbourhood.

The Art Gallery of Ontario is not far from Toronto City Hall. After leaving the gallery, I headed to Nathan Phillips Square to see what Canada Day festivities were taking place. To my surprise, the crowd was fairly small. Apart from the celebratory performances onstage, this clown seemed to be the only other entertainer in the square.

Perhaps because of the poor air quality, or perhaps because of the heat, the organizers had erected a misting canopy in the square. That was where the crowd had gathered. From what I could see, many of them were South Asian.

Even the security guard keeping order was an older Sikh gentleman in a turban.

Speaking of turbans, there were quite a few turbaned food couriers on the streets. It felt as though their community was close to monopolizing Toronto’s delivery business.

People waiting for orders with insulated delivery bags on their backs could be seen everywhere, becoming a new feature of the streetscape. This wall is a well-known Toronto photo spot. The yellow section reads “This Is Paradise,” and the blue section bears the same words, only upside down. Take a photograph straight on and, whichever way you turn it, you can always read “This Is Paradise.” The real world, however, rarely lives up to the words on the wall.

These two were also waiting for orders on their little electric scooters—the upgraded version of the food courier.

Many shops were closed. Some because it was a public holiday; others because the aftereffects of the pandemic had made it impossible for them to carry on.

With this place, for instance, it was hard to tell whether they were preparing to open or clearing out before closing for good.

When photographing shop windows, I am especially drawn to the plants inside. The glass reflects the busy clutter of the street, while behind it the plants keep growing tenaciously amid all the disorder.

They offer at least a little hope…

The advertisement outside this military-surplus shop was particularly eye-catching.

Equally striking was the graffiti on the wall: “Humans are the most aggressive species.” It all begins with that pink dollar sign.

I used to be fairly accepting of graffiti. As I have grown older, though, the sight of disorderly streets and the smell of cannabis everywhere have made me wonder whether it truly represents progress—or is instead a sign of decadence.