In the beginning of May I was an enthusiastic participant in the prestigious MAGNUM photography workshop as part of the Toronto CONTACT Photography Festival. The week long workshop was lead by six of MAGNUM’s photographers, I was among about 65 photographers from around the world who had the esteemed pleasure being part of the intensive and intimate workshop.
Working under photographer Chien-Chi Chang, I had to choose a photo-essay topic which I would photograph and compile for the slideshow presentation at the gala event on the final day of the workshop. The area of Toronto that I chose to focus on was the Financial District – I chose this location for both personal and photographic reasons. The core of Toronto is notoriously bland, and busy, and well….kind of boring. I photographed there for about 8 hours a day, on a mission to find beauty, colour and dynamic quality through the monotone, geometric, over-populated core. To challenge myself photographically I chose to only use my wide angle lens, shooting nearly everything between 24-35mm.
My final Photo-Essay, entitled ‘Mind the Gap’, is an investigation of the daily grind – the journey from the train to the office and back. Thousands of commuters make this trip, on schedule and in a rush, five days a week. The sign on the train platform advises you to “mind the gap” – this photo-essay is photographically observing the expanding of the ‘gap’ to include the time between the train station and the office and back again.
