In the second half of 2008 I completed what was my most ambitious project to date: a photo essay to meet the theme "my town" for a photo competition hosted by a camera forum that I was active on at the time. It was very exciting, and the results would be judged by a professional photographer and published together in book form. By Blurb, but that was a big deal at the time. I still have my copy.

Toronto is an expansive and varied place; I can barely claim to know even a small sliver of it. To bring the theme of the challenge down to a more manageable scope I focused only on Spadina Avenue, one single short street, which still encapsulates so much of what Toronto is.

Clicking on the images will make them bigger.

This is clearly an early project, but looking back all of these years later I'm still fairly pleased with how it all went together, especially considering the limitations of its space and format. There are things I'd change now, of course, but nothing that I cringe at. I'm glad to show it here as an example of where I've come from and where I am now as I look to start a new long-form project that will revisit this familiar ground.