Alexandra Park Co-op (2007)

For less than a year, in 2007, I was using a Holga toy camera. In retrospect, the style is a bit hard to stomach. But it was very era specific. Using this camera set me on the road to appreciating the square image, and I eventually got a Rolleiflex camera which I still enjoy and use. I was living on Brunswick avenue in Toronto, and would walk through the Alexandra Park and Atkinson Housing Co-ops on the way to the darkroom at Gallery 44. I’d burn a roll of film every time I passed through. I was fascinated by the brutalist architecture and the horrible arrowslit windows.

These winter shots were exaggerated by the use of a red filter screwed into the plastic lens. The negatives were horrible. I printed a small portfolio on Agfa MCC111 paper, which was cheap and cheerful in those days. I’d do anything for a fresh box of that stuff – it was wonderful.

These housing co-ops were teetering on the edge of change. When you look on a map of Toronto where they lie, it’s incredible to think the developers were kept at bay for as long as they were. This was prime real estate in the middle of a growing city.

I’ve never re-printed these images, and sometimes think a smaller image size would suit things better. Perhaps lith prints to exaggerate the oppressive feel of the place even more so. But then I think about how rotten those negatives were and drop the idea.

Dimensions

Paper: 11″ x 14″
Prints: 10″ x 10″

Selenium toned, silver gelatin prints