Thursday, November 11, 2010

Documentary Project - Working Images

These are some of my working images for a term documentary project. The subject I chose to document are the unique, beautiful and historic buildings and architectural features of the city of Toronto. There is still a lot of work to be done with tone, levels, and contrast. Please leave your feedback as these are working and not final images! 

#1

#2

#3 East of Yonge

#4 College Park, East Facade

#5 University of Toronto

#6 Toronto Police Headquarters

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11


#12   Queens Park South Facade

#13   Queens Park Facing West

#14 University of Toronto

#15  Princess Margaret Hospital
#16

#17

#18 (Ignore the coloured lines,  it something odd the blog did when I uploaded it!)

#19

#20

#21

#22

Monday, November 8, 2010

Natural & Urban Landscapes

Both of my landscapes explore the peculiar things that happen and exist in nature. Although they capture the essences of two distinct areas, each one possesses an uncommonly interesting quality.


 The natural landscape was shot on my home farm about three hours West of Toronto in an agricultural area. It is a literal ‘family tree’ as it was planted one of my ancestors a very long time ago. It has grown in such a beautiful symmetrical way and my family is very fond of it. It is dead in some spots and inconveniently placed, but continues to grow every season. So, because it means so much he has chosen to farm around it instead of having it removed. To many it would seem odd to see such a large old tree standing by itself in an empty field, but to me it is a testament to the attitude of rural areas. In my experience they are more apt to preserve treasured things like natural elements and historical buildings and areas, even if it means a little more effort and time on their behalf. Although nothing really grows well under this tree and it is more trouble to farm around then to cut down, it’s worth it to watch its growth and have a piece of living history that has watched the world change.




My urban landscape was shot off the roof of my apartment building in downtown Toronto. I sat in my room in the evening and looked out my 22nd floor window and all I saw was a wall of grey. I ran up to the roof with my camera and this is one of the many results I ended up with. Again, it is dealing with a bizarre part of nature but in an urban landscape. To me cities are still a rather strange thing and this photograph conveys to a point the confusion of my surroundings. I’m always baffled at natural disasters that happen and cause so much damage because humans have settled where they were never intended to and altered the landscape. Although cities like Toronto are very stable, the vast amounts of concrete, towering buildings and underground mazes unsettle me because they’re so unnatural.  The view from this building is meant to be a spectacular picture of downtown, but the human footprint can never be bigger or more powerful than nature, which in this case, is represented by the fog. Contrary to my natural landscape, I think this landscape gives a small window into the tendency of urban areas to ignore the surrounding nature and take a dominant role in the environment. I hope that this image successfully reflects the human presence in an urban area and how nature still seeps into urban areas no matter how we try to keep it out.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

other nifty abandoned house projects...

Abandoned Ontario
http://www.abandonedontario.ca/Abandoned_Ontario/Abandoned_Ontario,_abandoned_houses_in_Ontario.html



100 Abandoned Houses
http://www.100abandonedhouses.com/



Forgotten Ohio
http://www.forgottenoh.com/houses.html



Artist Dennis Maher's Assemblages
http://inhabitat.com/2010/10/16/stunning-assemblages-made-from-abandoned-houses/

Abandoned House Shoot 1


 Dawn Valley Road
This house was also a questionable one, but it had the same architectural style of a lot of the older ones, so I took a guess that maybe it had been kept up well over the years and has the bones of an older house. From the looks of it, it seemed abandoned. I didn’t think it was the most beautiful empty house I’d ever seen, but I liked that it was different, had that questionable circumstance, and was framed and partly hidden by two front trees.




Hale School Road
This house was quite pretty. The front yard on either side of the house was lined with big old trees and gave it a mysterious and charming feel. It seemes to be quite old, and was a decent size. There were intricate gables at the peak of this house and also beautiful detail in the frame of the top window. Besides the peeling paint it seemed to be in pretty decent shape.



Dawn Valley Road
This was a strange little square shack. I don’t know how more than two people would have ever lived in it. It seemed pretty empty since you could see right through it at some spots. The odd thing was that the steel roof seemed fairly new. It was either quite durable and had lasted, or it was recently or is still used for something. This house also had shrubbery in front of it blocking my shot, so I had to move as little as possible to the left, and so it is not completely frontal.



Dawn Valley Road
This house also frustratingly enough had shrubbery blocking my shot, so it also isn’t fully frontal. It was another questionable one because the farm around it seemed to be used and the grass was kept cut. It looked however, like it had the bones of an older house again because of the style.



Tramway Road
This was the second house we came upon, and what a gem. It was clearly very old and in it’s day must have been a wonder! It was red brick, and two stories with a small porch on the front of it. The very peak was made into a skylight, still in one piece. Most of it was covered in vine and the porch was crumbling. It seems like it would be a very good house to find some really old letters, pictures, and antiques in!



Tramway Road
This house was brick as well, and we found it on the same road as the first one. It also had quite a bit of character, brick, two story, with a cute little covered front porch and some neat windows. It was in surprisingly decent shape.



Tramway Road
Wow, this house made for my favourite shots of the day. It was set back in the field and had beans planted in front of it that were about ready to be harvested and dried out. The brick and windows had all been removed and it was just bare bones. It was quite beautiful and you could see right through the windows out the other side. I don’t know how safe this house would be to go inside, but some scenery shots out of the windows would be very begat to do.


(Also Tramway Road)


Tramway Road
This house is quite ugly, and I’m not super happy with the way the shots turned out. It looks like it had been lived in within the last decade or two. It had about the same frame as the amazing one before it but lacked the character. It seems like it would be a junk house inside.



Kent Line
This house is down my Aunt and Uncles Road. It is a fairly boring looking house, the standard square style with few windows and no intricacies. I remember from when I was younger driving by that there were people living there, so it was likely inhabited within the last decade.



Lambton Line
I’ve driven by this house plenty of times, as it’s on a fairly busy highway but is surrounded by inhabited houses and set back from the road. I always liked the architecture of it and I think it would have been a pretty smart house in it’s day. It’s an alright shot but I think it would be more interesting shot when all the leaves of the growth around its front are gone.



Starkweather Line
This house had a bit of a different feel. It is on the border of wondering it the house is really abandoned or if the occupants vehicle just wasn’t there. My father used to rent this farm from the occupant, and sadly he recently passed away. He was a bachelor who didn’t mind living modestly and so the house appears rundown. It is a pretty old house, but the closed in porch addition on the front makes it look a little newer.



Wabash Line
This was the very last house we documented that day. It was a very small house. In it’s time however I think it would have been fairly nice for it’s size. There was quite a bit grown in around it and I had to hold down branches to get a good shot. From a different angle I could see all the way through it and I think it hadn’t been lived in for a long time.



 Flat Rock Road
This house may have given me the willies the worst of all the houses. It was situated up on quite a big hill, so I was unable to get a straight on shot of it. There was also too many trees blocking the front of it and so it is from below and the side. It looked like an old log cabin style house, and like it hadn’t been inhabited for quite some time. I’m certain it would be very interesting inside.



Tramway Road
This was the very first house we found, It was fairly old, but seemed to be in alright shape from the outside. Most of the windows were boarded up and it seemed like some sort of porch or stairs had been taken off. There wasn’t much around it except for two big trees in the front that prevented me from getting the shot I wanted.



Gould Road
This was a pretty neat little house. It was surrounded by what looked like would have been a decent little working farm. It was very small and only one story. Due to it’s size I think no one would have lived in it for quite some time, or if they had it would have been a lonely person, and the things inside might be telling.



abandoned house structuralist grid

Shot on October 3rd, 2010, from 9:30am-3:30pm.

Myself and my mother got into our truck without a set direction, but ideas of where we would go. In my head I had vague ideas of houses I had passed by  many times but never really looked at in-depth. This was shot as a project for my production class at University. So from there it went!

I would say that my main love of photography is that of all things old. Antiques, old photos, old houses, anything to do with intriguing history and the passage of human beings through time. I find an old typewriter covered in dust not only beautiful, but it triggers my mind back to who owned it, looking to see what keys are worn, and wondering what letters and stories passed through it’s paper feed. It is this love that inspired me to document a staple feature of where I come from, abandoned rural houses.

I live in an area that is mainly agricultural, and spotted on the country side are these houses, that sit empty, and have been that way for years. Some of them are century-old houses, some have the bones of an old house but with a spruced up exterior, and some are newer, but look as if they’ve lived triple their actual age. Many of these houses still stand by themselves in a field because the small area of farmland would take years to yield the funds that are required to tear them down. Many of them have been left with the remnants of their inhabitants, some with dirty old furniture and appliances and not much else, yet some with piles of inanimate objects, family heirlooms, and priceless objects. Some lawns and adjoining sheds are even scattered with used objects like jars, socks, and mattress springs.

All houses except for one I did not have permission to venture onto the property or into the houses, so I shot them from a distance and used straight dead pan shots for this project. One property I did have permission to explore so I ventured across the property that also included a silo, an old wooden boat left sitting in trees, and at least three barns. It alone is a gem, which I will post photos of later on.

Enjoy!