Just south of Dundas on Crawford Street is a series of faded blue waves connecting a pathway that runs from Shaw to Gore Vale Avenue through Trinity Bellwoods Park. On a snowless winter day, runners still nonchalantly jaunt across it, their minds focused on their pace or the music coming from their headphones—unaware that if [...]

The municipal, provincial, and national archives are stocked with tens of thousands of photographs of Toronto and environs by one father-and-son team. Collectively, the works of John Boyd and John H. Boyd (or Boyd Jr.) span from the mid-1880s to the mid-1960s. While the elder Boyd was a prolific amateur photographer, the son turned his [...]

The Toronto Harbour Commission’s Waterfront Plan of 1912 was perhaps the most ambitious redevelopment plan in the city’s history, addressing the whole area from the Humber River to Victoria Park Avenue. The $19-million plan was developed by the Toronto Harbour Commission’s (THC) chief engineer, Edward L. Cousins, and sought to transform Toronto’s waterfront—then a combination [...]

Shooting red-carpet galas is like being in a sardine can wondering why the hell you’re there. Oh right, shooting TIFF celebs. But in many ways, it’s like shooting fish in a too-large barrel: some days you might get a funny smirk or a silly moment; other times, depending on where you’re positioned, you might not [...]

Samsara Directed by Ron Fricke (USA, Real to Reel) September 18, 9 p.m.AMC TIFF Bell Lightbox 2 (250 King Street West) In Hinduism, Buddhism, and a handful of other Indian religions, “samsara” refers the eternal cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth through Karma. So it’s fitting that Ron Fricke’s Samsara is a critical look [...]

Photographers on the red carpet and paparazzi in the streets arm themselves with some of the most expensive and advanced camera equipment available to catch the magic and misdeeds of TIFF. Precision (read: expensive) lenses, high-powered flashes, and fast memory cards aren’t the only requirements. A solid understanding of the equipment in their hands, a dose [...]

Toronto startup 500px is hiring. The website, which showcases high-end photography, has over 200,000 members, a tripling over three months, and co-founders Evgeny Sobolev and Oleg Gutsol expect to reach half a million before 2012. The allure of 500px stems from two main differences compared to other photo sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr: first, 500px has a cleaner, more elegant design to highlight the photography; second, the site curates the photography—with selections made by both users and the site’s editors—to ensure quality and reduce clutter. “What we’re focusing on are the really high-end artistic photography,” says Sobolev. “Photographers will post hundreds of photos on Flickr and then choose the top ten to post on 500px.”

At a media preview of TIFF’s new Federico Fellini exhibition, Fellini: Spectacular Obsessions, a gaggle of film-beat reporters was greeted at the entrance by the flickering flashbulbs of a huddled mass of paparazzi, installed in the Lightbox’s lobby.

In today’s Urban Planner: eat some more Italian food with the excuse that it’s Italy’s 150th birthday; check out some dramatic shots of Toronto burlesque performers; appreciate your urban forest; and see an artist’s interpretation of online dating profile pics.

Photo by Miles Storey/Torontoist. Some of Toronto’s most important architectural assets can be compared to Cameron’s house in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—very beautiful, very cold, and you’re not allowed to touch anything. But for one weekend every year, we heed Bueller’s advice and take the pretty, red Ferrari for a test drive. Or, in the [...]

View CONTACT 2011 in a larger map CONTACT, the largest annual photography festival in the world, is well underway. With so much going on recently—election! Jane’s Walk! Hot Docs!—it can be hard to keep up. Fortunately, CONTACT runs through to the end of May, with many individual shows running later still, and there is plenty [...]