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Pretty as a postcard?
Photos of the ROM's Crystal capture new look of the city, and may come to define it
Mark Medley
National Post
Saturday, June 09, 2007
The shot has been the defining image of the city: the turtle shell of the Rogers Centre, the CN Tower rising toward the clouds, the cluster of Bay Street highrises looming over the financial district and, more recently, the lakefront condos guarding the shore like sentries. The photograph, taken facing north from the Toronto Islands, is the image of Toronto that graces both postcards and the city's consciousness.
In recent weeks, however, the city has been captured from a new angle. Photos of the opening of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum shoot the city southward: the new Crystal exploding out of the old ROM building in the foreground, the skyscrapers and the CN Tower in the distance.
Where we once looked at our city from sea to shore, the Crystal may push Toronto into doing a 180, reinventing the Toronto skyline, and inspiring us to look from the land toward the lake.
"I wouldn't discount it at all, that's for sure," says Matthew Blackett, publisher of Spacing Magazine. "The building itself will become part of the postcard image of the city. There's no doubt about that."
The ROM opens up exciting new possibilities for how the city sees itself, he says. The Crystal shot breaks away from the traditional image of the city that any Great Lakes city can print on a postcard. "[It] certainly changes the mindset of the city," Mr. Blackett says. "It changes the mental image of the city."
But is a city with the Crystal sexier, more modern? How would a shift to the new angle change the city's perceived personality? Bonnie Rubenstein, director and editor of the Contact photography festival, says the Crystal makes a statement about Toronto as a cultural place.
"It puts culture right up front, in your face," she says. Besides strengthening the cultural identity of the city, the museum also looks to tomorrow and the changing vision of the city. "Because of the nature, the drama, of this architecture," says Ms. Rubenstein, "and how it's modernism, it also represents the future."
The shift to a new angle would arguably present a more accurate picture of the city's mindset than the traditional postcard shot, which emphasizes the water in a city that mostly turns its back on it, yesterday's opening of HtO park on Queen's Quay notwithstanding. The city was built up the spine of Yonge Street, not along Lake Ontario.
"How many people have a sense of the lake when you're in Toronto?" asks Ms. Rubenstein. "Not many ... It is really not a realistic representation of the feeling one has in Toronto. So this [the shot south], to me, is more accurate."
Mark Kingwell, professor of philosophy at Trinity College, thinks it will require more than the ROM to permanently reorient the view of Toronto to Bloor Street.
"I think it will take more than the ROM Crystal to shift the iconic image of Toronto away from the CN Tower as seen next to the mass of downtown, especially the TD Centre," Prof. Kingwell says. "A photograph can foreground a given building, especially a novel one, but the tower is still the linchpin. It's our version of the Empire State Building: It holds the whole city together visually."
Stephen Bulger would agree. The image of the city from the islands will persevere, says the Toronto gallery owner, because it contextualizes the city, and gives visual evidence to the progress Toronto has made through the years. "A way to update the city is taking it from the same angle," he says, and the island shot is "the angle people have been using for such a long time."
Robert Burley, a Ryerson Image Arts professor and photographer, says the ROM must first find its place in the city before becoming our defining image.
"I think certain buildings can serve to define a city ... buildings like the Sydney Opera House, the Coliseum in Rome, certainly Bilbao in Spain, have come to define those particular places," he says. "I think the ROM is already experiencing a lot of difficulty just creating this definitive picture of that structure. Not only creating the definitive picture of the structure, but creating the definitive picture of that building in the context of the city."
Noted Toronto photographer Geoffrey James says the building will take its place alongside ongoing projects such as the Gehry addition to the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Film Festival tower that will all add up to something: "There's going to be a lot of energy." But Mr. James thinks the Crystal's physical impact will largely be restricted to Bloor Street, and it will not be the building that anchors shots of the city.
"I don't think it's a big enough statement," he says, "it certainly is not Bilbao or the Sydney Opera House."
But Mr. Blackett says the opening of the Crystal reminds him of when Viljo Revel's new City Hall was built. He says it symbolized boldness, forward-thinking, and confidence, traits not normally associated with present-day Toronto.
"I do think for people who don't pay attention to Toronto," says Mr. Blackett, "that site is certainly going to rock them."
Rannie Turingan, a prolific Toronto photographer and creator of one of the city's most popular photo blogs, Photo-junkie, says the ROM "may be the iconic image of the moment" for Toronto, but it will simply join the CN Tower, Flatiron Building and City Hall on various tourist postcards. He questions whether any shot can convey a real vision of the city. He points out that as the city is growing -- and through the soaring popularity of photobloggers and amateur photographers who can display their shots online -- the images and representations that people have about the city are ever-evolving.
"Is it fair to say that there is any sort of iconic image of Toronto?" asks Mr. Turingan. "To me, it seems that there is this growing mosaic collection of images of the city online, which suitably respresent its diversity. Toronto is more than just the CN Tower, the ROM or any other landmark. It's collective images of details, landmarks and people that you can find online that really show what the city is about."
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YOUR PHOTOS
What is the signature photograph of Toronto? Is it the waterfront, the ROM's Crystal--or another angle entirely? Send your photographs, including the spot from which they were taken, to: thecity@nationalpost.com
Pretty as a postcard?
Photos of the ROM's Crystal capture new look of the city, and may come to define it
Mark Medley
National Post
Saturday, June 09, 2007
The shot has been the defining image of the city: the turtle shell of the Rogers Centre, the CN Tower rising toward the clouds, the cluster of Bay Street highrises looming over the financial district and, more recently, the lakefront condos guarding the shore like sentries. The photograph, taken facing north from the Toronto Islands, is the image of Toronto that graces both postcards and the city's consciousness.
In recent weeks, however, the city has been captured from a new angle. Photos of the opening of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum shoot the city southward: the new Crystal exploding out of the old ROM building in the foreground, the skyscrapers and the CN Tower in the distance.
Where we once looked at our city from sea to shore, the Crystal may push Toronto into doing a 180, reinventing the Toronto skyline, and inspiring us to look from the land toward the lake.
"I wouldn't discount it at all, that's for sure," says Matthew Blackett, publisher of Spacing Magazine. "The building itself will become part of the postcard image of the city. There's no doubt about that."
The ROM opens up exciting new possibilities for how the city sees itself, he says. The Crystal shot breaks away from the traditional image of the city that any Great Lakes city can print on a postcard. "[It] certainly changes the mindset of the city," Mr. Blackett says. "It changes the mental image of the city."
But is a city with the Crystal sexier, more modern? How would a shift to the new angle change the city's perceived personality? Bonnie Rubenstein, director and editor of the Contact photography festival, says the Crystal makes a statement about Toronto as a cultural place.
"It puts culture right up front, in your face," she says. Besides strengthening the cultural identity of the city, the museum also looks to tomorrow and the changing vision of the city. "Because of the nature, the drama, of this architecture," says Ms. Rubenstein, "and how it's modernism, it also represents the future."
The shift to a new angle would arguably present a more accurate picture of the city's mindset than the traditional postcard shot, which emphasizes the water in a city that mostly turns its back on it, yesterday's opening of HtO park on Queen's Quay notwithstanding. The city was built up the spine of Yonge Street, not along Lake Ontario.
"How many people have a sense of the lake when you're in Toronto?" asks Ms. Rubenstein. "Not many ... It is really not a realistic representation of the feeling one has in Toronto. So this [the shot south], to me, is more accurate."
Mark Kingwell, professor of philosophy at Trinity College, thinks it will require more than the ROM to permanently reorient the view of Toronto to Bloor Street.
"I think it will take more than the ROM Crystal to shift the iconic image of Toronto away from the CN Tower as seen next to the mass of downtown, especially the TD Centre," Prof. Kingwell says. "A photograph can foreground a given building, especially a novel one, but the tower is still the linchpin. It's our version of the Empire State Building: It holds the whole city together visually."
Stephen Bulger would agree. The image of the city from the islands will persevere, says the Toronto gallery owner, because it contextualizes the city, and gives visual evidence to the progress Toronto has made through the years. "A way to update the city is taking it from the same angle," he says, and the island shot is "the angle people have been using for such a long time."
Robert Burley, a Ryerson Image Arts professor and photographer, says the ROM must first find its place in the city before becoming our defining image.
"I think certain buildings can serve to define a city ... buildings like the Sydney Opera House, the Coliseum in Rome, certainly Bilbao in Spain, have come to define those particular places," he says. "I think the ROM is already experiencing a lot of difficulty just creating this definitive picture of that structure. Not only creating the definitive picture of the structure, but creating the definitive picture of that building in the context of the city."
Noted Toronto photographer Geoffrey James says the building will take its place alongside ongoing projects such as the Gehry addition to the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Film Festival tower that will all add up to something: "There's going to be a lot of energy." But Mr. James thinks the Crystal's physical impact will largely be restricted to Bloor Street, and it will not be the building that anchors shots of the city.
"I don't think it's a big enough statement," he says, "it certainly is not Bilbao or the Sydney Opera House."
But Mr. Blackett says the opening of the Crystal reminds him of when Viljo Revel's new City Hall was built. He says it symbolized boldness, forward-thinking, and confidence, traits not normally associated with present-day Toronto.
"I do think for people who don't pay attention to Toronto," says Mr. Blackett, "that site is certainly going to rock them."
Rannie Turingan, a prolific Toronto photographer and creator of one of the city's most popular photo blogs, Photo-junkie, says the ROM "may be the iconic image of the moment" for Toronto, but it will simply join the CN Tower, Flatiron Building and City Hall on various tourist postcards. He questions whether any shot can convey a real vision of the city. He points out that as the city is growing -- and through the soaring popularity of photobloggers and amateur photographers who can display their shots online -- the images and representations that people have about the city are ever-evolving.
"Is it fair to say that there is any sort of iconic image of Toronto?" asks Mr. Turingan. "To me, it seems that there is this growing mosaic collection of images of the city online, which suitably respresent its diversity. Toronto is more than just the CN Tower, the ROM or any other landmark. It's collective images of details, landmarks and people that you can find online that really show what the city is about."
---
YOUR PHOTOS
What is the signature photograph of Toronto? Is it the waterfront, the ROM's Crystal--or another angle entirely? Send your photographs, including the spot from which they were taken, to: thecity@nationalpost.com
