The Industrial Foundations of Toronto
 

The Industrial Foundations of Toronto explores the physical traces of the city’s industrial past and how those spaces exist within a rapidly changing urban landscape. My project is focusing on one of Toronto's major industrial hubs, the Junction. The junction, due to its major railway system, attracted several factories, foundries, meatpacking plants, and manufacturing operations, thus becoming one of the significant working-class centres with a growing industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the city continues to modernize, many former industrial sites have been abandoned, repurposed, or erased entirely. This series documents places that once powered the city through manufacturing and hard labour, revealing how Toronto remembers, reshapes, or overlooks its industrial legacy. My work will show how a city preserves its past through urban change.

 

This project is rooted in documentary photography and is created through time spent walking and observing Toronto. This series was taken in black and white to create a sense of drama while also to emphasize the texture and contrast captured in the buildings and landmarks. Capturing each photo acts in a way as a visual document and a fragment of capturing its space in the present, while giving us a glimpse of its past. 

 

This project asks how does urban gentrification change a city's past. Does development come with consequences, and does the city do a good job at preserving its history. To me these buildings are significant history to Toronto's past and working class. A memory to the people who helped forge and build this city from the bottom up. By photographing these spaces, I aim to create awareness of what is disappearing and encourage viewers to reflect on the environments they move through every day.