Alayne McGregor
If you look around corners in Little Italy, you can find the works of photographers from across Canada.
The SPAO Photographic Arts Centre has created a Photo Walk in conjunction with the Preston Street BIA. It has affixed large-scale reproductions of 20 artistic photographs to the sides of buildings on or near Preston Street.
Currently, the walk extends from Carling north to Somerset, but SPAO hopes to expand it to all of Little Italy, including side streets.
Each photo has a story
You can search out the photographs yourself, or check the key on the SPAO website at spao.ca/photo-walk. Each artwork is accompanied by a QR code that gives participants access to the story behind the image as well as to the Photo Walk map for a self-guided tour.
Phase 1 of the walk launched November 24, but SPAO promises it will evolve with more photographs later. The open call for photographs received over 500 applications from across Canada. The chosen artworks were selected by an assessor jury consisting of nationally recognized industry leaders, including the former chief curator and senior curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Canada.
BIA Executive Director Lindsay Childerhose said the photowalk was “born out of a shared goal to elevate the level of public art on Preston Street, while giving a voice to diverse artists from across Canada.”
Idea born during pandemic walks
SPAO Creative Director Jonathan Hobin told The BUZZ that the idea for the walk was born during the pandemic when many exhibitions went online. “I don’t feel people can engage with art that way.”
He had been doing neighbourhood walks constantly during the shutdown, and saw many vacant spaces in Little Italy where SPAO is located. He pitched the idea to the BIA of working with local businesses with available wall space and putting art there.
“Why not get the best photographic artwork we could from across Canada, and decorate our neighbourhood with those photographs? And make it the exact opposite of an online exhibition – you have to actually physically move your body and not just from one art to the next but in some cases a few minutes from art to art. You get to enjoy your city in a new way, walk with a friend, grab a coffee, and be physical but at the same time experience culture.
“I think the idea of experiencing a neighbourhood, a community, is almost as valuable as seeing the artworks themselves. I just really hope that people go out there and enjoy it.”
Reflecting Little Italy’s immigrant origins
All the artists are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, but there were no restrictions on style or topic, Hobin said. “The goal really was to represent the diversity of photographic arts across Canada, not just geographically but also stages of career, lived experience, country of origin. Especially in a neighbourhood built by immigrants, we wanted to make sure that the immigrant voice is also represented.”
Some business owners who thought of the area as a historic Italian community did ask what the walk’s tie would be to Little Italy, Hobin said. His perspective was that the walk reflects the spirit of the immigrant experience and the adversity and hard work experienced, but not focusing specifically on an Italian heritage.
The jury also had to consider which photographs were appropriate for the public and what was “too heavy of a subject matter,” Hobin said.
Photographs are both in black&white and colour, and produced using many different processes. One artist prints photographs on leaves; another creates sets and photographs them using a glass plate negative.
The reproductions are produced by a process intended for outside exhibition, Hobin said, and SPAO has had artwork using this process outside for three years “and it looks almost virtually the same.”
SPAO has licensed the photographs in the walk for about five years, he said, but if a piece gets faded or tired, “it’s the perfect time to refresh it with a new art piece.”
“Interesting and eye-catching”
Toronto photographer Allison Morris, whose photograph The Living Room is displayed on the side of a building just north of Preston Hardware, was present at the walk’s opening. She said she made a point of checking out her artwork that evening and was happy how it looked.
“I honestly didn’t know what to expect; I’d never done an outside installation before. So it was very exciting.”
In order to pick a photograph that would work in large scale on a wall, she said she picked an image that would be “interesting and eye-catching if you were walking down the street.” Her image is of a staged living room with miniature furniture, designed to evoke the isolation experienced during the pandemic.
“I loved the idea of having that blown up and living outside now, rather than in the room where it was created.”
She said she thought the walk was a great way to get people out, exploring the community and discovering different artists.
The photo walk had originally been planned to open this summer, but Hobin said it had been delayed by waiting for permits and paperwork from the city.