Michelle Schwartz Chronicles » Photography: Toronto

New Post on Cameracratic! Raging against the machine (Chapters/Indigo)

michelle — Sun, 15 May 2011 14:42:00 +0000

New Post on Cameracratic! Fun Times in Little Malta

michelle — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:01:43 +0000

Stark and I went for a walk up Dundas to the Junction today. We are always fascinated by crumbling paint and old signs and have been trying to capture the glory that is old Dundas before it is completely and totally gentrified by hipsters and then glass condos. A lot of the stuff we found reminded me of my (still incomplete) Avenue U project.

When we walked far enough West (North? Who can keep track of Dundas’ shifting direction?) on Dundas, past the sight of our last gentrification photo project in the Junction, we reached a Maltese neighborhood. Who knew there was such a magical place? There was even a Maltese bakery promising something called Pastizzi. I thought that sounded promising, as anything that sounds like a combination of pasta and pizza would, but it was closed. Curses! I looked it up when we got home and pastizzi are ricotta-filled pastries. I MISSED OUT ON A NEW FORM OF DOUGH STUFFED WITH CHEESE. Goddammit. Well, reason enough to go back… unless the hipsters move in and it goes out of business first.

Anyway, walking back from the sadly closed pastizzeria (I have learned a new word, courtesy of Wikipedia) we passed a whackload of neat looking stores. It would seem that it is a hobby of THE ENTIRE Junction to collect old electronic and mechanical equipment. Almost every window, no matter what the content of the store, is filled with at least one old typewriter, transistor radio or product from brands like Electrolux or Westinghouse or RCA. Why? I don’t know. Maybe this is how the people of the Junction dealt with being denied alcohol for so many decades. But moving on, if there are two people in this world who appreciate the beauty of a broken radio from 1965, it is Stark and me.

So, a photo tour: Welcome to Toronto’s Little Malta

Continue on Cameracratic

New Posts on Cameracratic!

michelle — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 01:38:37 +0000

After having left Cameracratic inactive since August, I finally made two new posts, both on reality TV.

The first is on our experience watching a taping of Battle of the Blades:

And the second is on our free tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance tour:

General Life Updates: To Do List of Obsessiveness

michelle — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:56:44 +0000

Oy, why me?
1. ~~Redo resume, upload to site, send a copy to dad~~
2. Clean up iTunes library: ~~Artist tags (3880 cut down to 3771)~~, genres
3. ~~Running map and log~~
4. ~~Photo/Visual page~~
5. ~~Writing Page: Add menus, add writing samples.~~
6. Email Ali about possible volunteer work.
7. Write Bridezilla Shameless post.
8. Read up on wireframes, practice using site
9. Pixen project
10. Freak sounds – finish cutting and loading to site.
11. ~~Start~~ and keep monthly budget.

Photography: Toronto – Signs

michelle — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:40:10 +0000

I’m thinking of starting a new photo project, and by “new,” I mean “I already have a bunch of photos on one theme and nothing to do with them.” This new project will be along the lines of “Saints in a Bush,” but using with signs instead of lawn ornamentation. I’m thinking of calling it “Signs and Wonders.” Y’know, all my projects seem to have such a religious theme. Oh well, moving on.

I have a bunch of photos of motel signs from the Road Trip of Champions, but I can’t decide whether those should remain separate from the photos I’ve taken elsewhere, like the ones I’ve taken in Toronto.

Some recent signs seen in Toronto:

This dead or dying palm tree was spotted on Spadina, in Chinatown:

“Under new man agement” is on Queen Street:

This one is special because it’s in our neighborhood. Also, because there’s a squirrel on the line: