Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

LowPolygon · Jan 2, 2010

there's no particular purpose to this thread. its just that i keep coming across images of Toronto that i find evocative, moving, or fascinating in some way i and wanted to compile them. some of them i find to be just highly interesting.

there are many reasons why certain photographs provoke an emotional reaction. you can look at 100 photographs of more or less the same thing, and there might be just one that is totally fantastic. its not even always clear what makes an amazing image, but there has to be some fortuitous combination of things: the light, the time of day, the angle, the actual date, the subject itself, a particular look, person, detail, whatever....

most of these images are not necessarily directly related to architecture, but they are nonetheless directly related to the place that Toronto was.

androiduk · Jan 2, 2010

Very interesting thread deepend, thanks. I know what you mean about 'some photos' that get to you. Usually I find it's photos with a very simple subject matter, like the one below.

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Considering their financial problems I wonder if Canada Post might consider reviving this practice of a multi purpose mailbox unit that incorporates advertising. Could work if designed right.

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thecharioteer · Jan 2, 2010

Thanks, deepend, for the photos. Here are a few more that have the same effect on me:

The famous diving horse at Hanlan's:

Yonge Street (note the bearded chap staring right at the camera):

Troops departing for WWI at the foot of Yonge Street:

Building the Bloor Street Viaduct:

Concession booth at Hanlan's:

Eaton's (I believe for the Coronation of Elizabeth II):

Celebrating the end of the war in Europe at King & Bay:

Royal visit at King & York (Globe & Mail Building behind):

LowPolygon · Jan 2, 2010

androiduk said:
very interesting thread deepend, thanks. I know what you mean about 'some photos' that get to you. Usually i find it's photos with a very simple subject matter, like the one below.

thank you! I love that one as well...the small figure of the young woman leaning against the massive walls of city hall, and staring across the street at the ramshackle buildings of the ward....

LowPolygon · Jan 2, 2010

thecharioteer said:
Thanks, deepend, for the photos. Here are a few more that have the same effect on me:

Concession booth at Hanlan's:

this one is totally fantastic! your mind can't help but create a little narrative for the seven people in the frame....

androiduk · Jan 2, 2010

One of my favourites.

adma · Jan 2, 2010

thedeepend said:
thank you! I love that one as well...the small figure of the young woman leaning against the massive walls of city hall, and staring across the street at the ramshackle buildings of the ward....

Is she staring across the street, or to her left? (If the latter, the banal "replica situation" today might be someone waiting for the Bay bus.)

LowPolygon · Jan 2, 2010

adma said:
Is she staring across the street, or to her left? (If the latter, the banal "replica situation" today might be someone waiting for the Bay bus.)

you're right she is looking down towards Queen st, so its entirely possible she is waiting for the bus! although i reckon she might be dressed a bit better if she was heading uptown. i sort of imagined a more vagrant or indolent kind of energy to the figure; its easy to see a single female figure leaning idly against a building as suggestive of easy virtue....

thecharioteer · Jan 2, 2010

Night:

Goldie · Jan 3, 2010

Alone at the Hall

Like some other viewers, I too, am fond of that image of the lone woman at City Hall.
Here's another lonely person at City Hall (attached):

LowPolygon · Jan 3, 2010

Goldie said:
Like some other viewers, I too, am fond of that image of the lone woman at City Hall.
Here's another lonely person at City Hall (attached):

very nice Goldie--your figure is even more dwarfed by the architecture. its amazing how futuristic New City Hall still looks! its also interesting that the figure in your photograph is literally right across the road from where the lone woman stood--several decades earlier...

LowPolygon · Jan 3, 2010

thecharioteer said:
Night:

that's a good theme...even the streets of small provincial cities like Toronto looked beguiling and noirish once electrical lighting was installed!

not surprisingly, there are only a smattering of vintage night shots of Toronto, as the long exposures required for shooting at night meant that they were hard to pull off. also, its a certainty that there were just far fewer people taking photographs in the evening.

on the other hand, many of the best ones often have interesting light effects precisely because of the long exposures required.

Mustapha · Jan 3, 2010

thedeepend, great night time CNE pictures.

The various war related pictures at the Toronto Archives are evocative; sometimes you can 'caption' them yourself, if one is in the mood. This one is of Gloria Swanson.

LowPolygon · Jan 3, 2010

Mustapha said:
The various war related pictures at the Toronto Archives are evocative; sometimes you can 'caption' them yourself, if one is in the mood. This one is of Gloria Swanson.

wow--"Miss Canada"? she was more or less retired then, and would have been semi-forgotten as she didn't do all that much after the mid-30's.

on the other hand, she is only 5 years or so away from the role of a lifetime!

thecharioteer · Jan 3, 2010

Great find with the Swanson pic, deepend! Given the title of the thread, there is nothing more evocative of the past than seeing Hollywood stars in Toronto locations:

Toronto's own Mary Pickford:

At Union Station with Douglas Fairbanks, 1926:

At City Hall, late 30's:

At Varsity Stadium:

Sterling Hayden 1942:

Spencer Tracy with the poppy girl:

Roy Rogers at Sick Kids, late 50's:

Gene Autry at Sick Kids, late 50's:

Liberace at Maple Leaf Gardens, 60's:

Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

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