Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Mustapha]

"After a pen ink drawing by CW Jefferys ca 1888 reproduced in Evening Telegram series 'Landmarks of Toronto' 10 Aug 1889.

Queen St W and Soho NE corner.

Today.

 

[Mustapha]

August 17, 1991. Murder investigation. Dundas W just west of Beverley, south side. Still a cold case.

https://www.torontopolice.on.ca/homicide/case/57/1991

Today.

 

[Mustapha]

Then.

Heads up. Feeling wordy today.

A 1907 pic from the TPL archives. St. Philips Church. We are looking SE at the SW corner of Dundas and Spadina. It's a mystery to me why the photographer of the time would set up in all probability a heavy view camera - at night, in the winter, to record this scene. Besides that mystery, the pic is certainly evocative. It's detailed and crystal clear. Night pics lend themselves to black and white realism so you can really immerse yourself in this pic. Just get closer to your monitor. Closer.

Some details: Dundas has yet to see streetcars. Not widened yet either. There are containers of possibly coal ash at the end of the front yard. My grandparents had a coal furnace up until the mid 60s, so I know. They even used the same kind of galvanized steel tubs for the ash. They used to spread coal ash in school yards to get rid of it. At least they did at John Fisher up on Erskine Avenue. I still carry bits of ash under the skin on my knees from falling in it. Lights are on in St. Philips. Wonder what's up? In the home to the right, a light is on in .. the bathroom? Does anyone know the config of these kinds of homes? They are all over downtown Toronto, especially further along Dundas West and also up on College. And this same house has put some wooden crates out for the garbage pickup.

St. Philips was renamed St. Elizabeth of Hungary in 1944. Finally in 1985 it was demolished. The expansion of the present Spadina Chinatown is complete I think. There's been no growth in terms of geographical spread since the mid 90s. It's all in Markham now. Wow, like is it ever? Driven around Markham lately? Revenge for Mayor Carole Bell's remarks. And the demolition of the Elizabeth street Chinatown. Even as a child I was sad to see it go.

Today.

The 'Now' pic is not even any kind of comparison. I couldn't wait for nightfall. I DID take the picture after 6pm however..

To relate things in the present day: On the far right of the pic is a sign 'Pho Past'; it reads in it's entirety 'Pho Pasteur'. It's open 24 hours, that's right, 24 hours, 7 days a week. I've been in there as late as 2am, ignoring the texts from wifey plaintively asking 'where are you?'. Not bad food. The pork chop with a fried egg on top and rice underneath with the pickly radish garnish is good. Never busy so the staff are reasonably attentive. To the left of the 519 Dundas sign is a lavender colour sign. That's the 'Yooj' restaurant. Cheap and cheerful. The food is pre-made; mall Chinese food style but much better. Around the corner of 519 Dundas on the Spadina side is, improbably, a Dairy Queen. Go there for an Orange Julius® Original. It's as good as a blood transfusion, i.e., I recommend it.

We need to have a Urban Toronto meetup in one of these places.

So that's it.. Your eyes are glazing over already 'cause you just wanted a Now and Then pair. I wrote all this because back in the early days of this thread I would also do this stream of consciousness thing because it was well, my, thing.

And wires strung from wood poles never seem to go out of fashion.

 

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

"We need to have a Urban Toronto meetup in one of these places."
Mustapha.

Right you are!
(Or at Kowloon, 5 Baldwin St.)

Regards,
J T

 

[Koolgreen]

note the jet trail waaayyyyyy above the peak of the roof...... ;-)

 

[Rusty]

It's a time lapse shot. Isn't it a star trail?

 

[Goldie]

note the jet trail waaayyyyyy above the peak of the roof...... ;-)

Wouldn't be a "jet trail" in 1907!
Maybe the photographer captured the streak of a meteor.

 

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

"Maybe the photographrt captured the streak of a meteor."
Prof GOLDIE.

This, although later, is an interesting take upon a meteor Shower/streak:
(Note the location thereof - High Park!)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/great-meteor-procession-mystery-1913_n_2743904.html

Regards,
J T

 

[Red October]

It could just be a wire reflecting the light from the street.

 

[steveintoronto]

It could just be a wire reflecting the light from the street.

That's my take. It's straight, a star or meteor trail is curved. It's probably a 'take-off' tied to one of the pole bundle wires. Light reflection and nature is the same as some of the other identifiable ones and is perfectly parallel to a darker wire beneath it.

That's an incredible shot. One wonders if it wasn't a contact print from a massive portrait negative? Glass slide? And slow, slow, slow emulsion with the smallest aperture setting. Depth of field is sharp.

My God, that's transfixing...

 

[Mustapha]

237 and 239 Yonge. Respectively Le Strip and McDonalds, 1980s.

This evening. 237 is now Payless shoes. 239 is the Stag shop.

241 bears reflection. Are the upper floors tenanted? If not, what a waste. It's a distinctive building in its original state.

And a thought about colour film at night back in the day.. poor, very poor results.

 

[Goldie]

A 1947 aerial photo shows the location of Scott Lane,
running east from Yonge, across Scott St. and almost as far as Church St.

This was the view from Yonge, looking east in 1904.
Now the site of The Sony Centre and L Tower.

The remains of Scott Lane are now only found east from Scott St.

 

[Mustapha]

Why do we look at Then and Nows? Personal or historical connection? An interest in a time or era? Nostalgia? Why does a disappeared building or scene appeal to our senses. Is it Toronto centric? This last question I can answer personally. It doesn't have to be Toronto. It can be Then and Nows from any time or place. It can be the people or imagined/suggested story in the image. It can be a 'mise en scène'.

Today's Eaton Centre mall succeeded a warren of streets and lanes hemmed in closely - loomed over even - by pre-WWI Eatons factories. These disappeared streets are: Terauley [formerly Alice], Louisa and Albert. Albert still exists on the north side of Old City Hall - its path can be traced through the Eaton Centre. There is lettering above the west exit of the mall proclaiming 'Albert Way'. One of the concessions the City of Toronto extracted from the developer - who built over the segment of Albert from James to Yonge - was pedestrian access in perpetuity. Hence the Eaton Centre being open [not the shops of course..] all night for strollers.

Eaton's success via small scale but still serial manufacturing - done locally, meant that it could respond quickly to end unprofitable ventures and meet new market needs quickly. The validity of this 'vertical integration' - factory floor on Louisa, sales counter on Queen, allowed Eatons to thrive until other global regions adopted manufacturing expertise.

The factories that lined these streets are gone but here in Toronto one can still get a sense of what was lost by standing on Mowat Ave just south of King. [just not in the middle of Mowat please..]


Laneway between Terauley and Albert looking S. 1972. [Northway and Son was at 240 Yonge].

Today. A bit out of focus sorry.

Terauley looking E from Bay. 1950.

As above, 1975.

Today.

Aaand, from the other direction; from the Yonge street side. Teraulay looking W. 1950.

Today. Now I know I should have taken this from the middle of Yonge, but there was too much traffic. Suffice to say there isn't anything to see here - just the east wall of the Eaton Centre.

Lane looking N from Albert Street. c. early 70s.

Today.

 

[steveintoronto]

Why do we look at Then and Nows? Personal or historical connection? An interest in a time or era? Nostalgia? Why does a disappeared building or scene appeal to our senses. Is it Toronto centric? This last question I can answer personally. It doesn't have to be Toronto. It can be Then and Nows from any time or place. It can be the people or imagined/suggested story in the image. It can be a 'mise en scène'.

Wow! I guess since I was raised on B&W as serious photography (I made the mistake of taking Photo Arts instead of Electronic Engineering after graduating from High School) and nothing transfixes the neurons and photo-receptors like graphic B&W images...there must be simpler neural image recognition scan in B&W than in colour....and some of those shots are absolutely mesmerizing. As in computer rendition, colour is an 'added value', an extra layer of encoding. A 'mark-up' language.

"It can be Then and Nows from any time or place. "

I think it goes beyond that, at least for me, and I'm sure for others. There's a *recognition* reflex mixed in with digesting the information. "I know that place"....and a flash of "I used to live there". Before my time.
I have to leave it at that.

Edit to Add: Is there genetic memory? If one leans toward believing that, then it's not irrational to wonder: "Is there information in a bit-map photo record that interprets that encoded memory"? I'm short of rational words to explain this better, but suffice it to say someone might recognize what I'm grasping for on this, and explain it in more tangible terms?

I almost daren't start going back pages to see what other fantastic shots there are. It's a bit overwhelming, which is exactly what good photography should do. It captures information. Is it just static, or is it capable of exciting a kinetic resonance? I think the latter.

Mise-en-scène (French pronunciation: [mizɑ̃sɛn] "placing on stage") is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. It is also commonly used to refer to multiple single scenes within the film to represent the film. Mise-en-scène has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term".[1]
[...]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise-en-scène

There's another dimension of information multiplexed into the two dimensions we visually discern. In physics, it's already possible to deconstruct two dimensions to create a third.

Best example I can offer is this (pardon my resorting to my field of specialty)

In layman's terms:

Discovering A Hidden Third Channel In Stereo Recordings
December 1, 2014
In some of my previous blog posts, I mentioned that I like to experiment with music. I’ve created a series of music and drumbeat montages, and I’ve also been able to uncover hidden music and lyrics in pop songs.

I’d now like to share with you, a serendipitous discovery I made a while ago. While I was playing around with my audio editing software, I managed to uncover previously unheard vocals in some pop songs. To be fair, most songs yielded nothing of any interest, but one tune in particular was remarkable – it was almost as if I had discovered a secret “third channel” hidden in the stereo recording.

As we all know, almost all modern music is recorded in stereo. There was a time during the early 1970s when quadraphonic sound looked like it would become popular, but it never gained widespread acceptance. More recently, the SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) and DVD-A formats promised music in 5.1-channel surround sound, but they never became popular either.

The source materials I used were neither quadraphonic nor surround. They were simply ordinary CDs, recorded in stereo. One afternoon, as I was extracting songs from CDs, and then playing around with the waveforms, I heard what sounded like brand new vocals and unexpected instrumentation on a 1977 song called Long Time, by Boston. What was going on here? Where was this new material coming from?

Here is a short excerpt from the song. This is the original, unaltered version:

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This is the mysterious “third track” that I had somehow uncovered:

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I’ve been listening to this song for decades, yet I’ve never heard these vocal harmonies before. I then listened to both the left and right channels of the original recording, but I still couldn’t hear these new vocal harmonies. I wasn’t sure exactly how these vocals suddenly became isolated and audible, but I knew that this was significant. I quickly wrote down everything I had done, so that I wouldn’t forget the procedure. These are the steps:

1. Isolate one channel, and invert the waveform. In this case, I inverted the left channel. These are the before and after images of the waveform.

2. Combine the inverted left channel with the normal right channel, into a mono signal. This is what it looks like:

Naturally, the next thing I tried to do was identify and extract a fourth channel. Who knows how much more material was hidden in these stereo recordings, just waiting to be uncovered? I was convinced that I was on to something big – this could mean the rebirth of quadraphonic sound. However, unlike the early 1970s quadraphonic recordings, which had to be recorded in four channels, I would be able to extract channels three and four from ordinary stereo recordings. Imagine experiencing your existing music collection again, in four-channel sound! I was already imagining an audio renaissance and the re-emergence of the audiophile.
[...continues at length...]

https://bobyewchuk.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/third-channel/

In fact, he's describing this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynaquad

Photos contain even greater amounts of hidden phase information. This is part of a large discussion right now on "3D" for movies. Except photos are 'stills'....or are they?

 

[adma]

A 1947 aerial photo shows the location of Scott Lane,
running east from Yonge, across Scott St. and almost as far as Church St.

View attachment 108775

2 out of 3 cellphone-gawkers.