Downtown Yonge Artwalk

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Toronto TIME series,
Yonge and Elm

  • Photograph and archives
  • 2014
  • 33 Gerrard Street West (inside the Chelsea Hotel), Toronto

About the artwork

Whether we choose to take part in it or not, we are a civilization that is in constant remembrance of our past. Toronto photographer Harry Enchin reminds us of this affinity for old versus new in his provoking series, Toronto TIME.

Photographs are unrestrained singular moments in history, authentic visual references, and records of change that have been embraced by Enchin and held in time. Drawing on photographs from the City of Toronto Archives, Enchin references historical images of industrialized Toronto and seamlessly integrates them with his own visual record of the city in its current post-modern state. The end result is a series of insightful, informative, and introspective images that possess an aura of personal familiarity.

By breathing life and his vision, literally, into these once lost photographs, Enchin not only renders our relationship with our city’s past but sparks a worthy conversation we all should be having.

About the artist

Award-winning fine art photographer Harry Enchin specializes in photo-based collages of urban streetscapes using then and now photography or rephotography. Enchin finds old photographs – really old photographs – and using archival cityscapes, the artist physically goes to that exact location and creates new moments in time with his own photography.

He then brings the two together in a photographic collage. Sometimes with a left/right or top/bottom orientation but always with a delicate blending, he accentuates elements from both eras. In his three current series, Toronto TIME, Manhattan Memento and Boston & Before, we see not only the eye of the photographer but also the cultural and social changes that have occurred.

Fun facts

  • Enchin came up with the idea for this project while driving with his mother through The Junction on Dundas and Runnymede. After commenting on how her neighbourhood changed in the last 20 years, his mother recollected on the reality of the past with today’s changes.