A Summer of Street Portraits on Film

O wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
— Robert Burns

Earlier this year, I was feeling creatively stagnant. I’d taken hundreds of photos of my wife, son, and friends. As beautiful as they are, I needed a change of subject. I needed to get out of my comfort zone and challenge myself. I decided to make weekly pilgrimages to my home city’s downtown, meet new people, and take their photograph. And so began my summer of street portraits on film.

A Charismatic Island in a Sea of Urban Sprawl

I live in London, Ontario, which is a 2-hour drive south-west of Toronto on the way to Detroit. On paper, London is quite large: about 450,000 people. But most of these people live in suburbs on the outskirts of town where Costcos and Walmarts reign supreme. In fact, most Londoners rarely visit the downtown and some actively avoid it.

Like many cities across North America, London has faced challenges with addiction, mental health, and housing. These challenges are more obvious when visiting the downtown as compared to visiting big box stores like HomeSense or Winners. Still, the city centre is charming and full of character with century-old red brick buildings, locally owned stores, and many small parks. We even have a river that runs through town, and like our namesake across the Atlantic, it is called the Thames River (yes, we reversed the word order to be unique).

The Art of the Street Portrait

I began doing street portraits about a year ago. But it wasn’t until this past summer that I started taking them with regularity and intent. I now have a well-practiced routine. I leave the house in the late morning or early afternoon, park at the YMCA Central Branch, and walk up and down Dundas Street, which is the main artery of the downtown core, is pedestrian friendly, and has lots of foot traffic.

I always take two cameras: a Rolleiflex 2.8F and an analog Leica-M body with a Summilux or Summicron 50mm lens. I almost exclusively shoot black and white film with some expired colour stocks dotted in as a palate cleanser. (I have a complicated relationship with colour film.)

It’s not easy asking strangers for their photograph. I’m shy and it’s taken a lot of practice for me to be brave enough to approach people with my cameras and ask for a picture. I try to be polite, kind, and respectful and explain what I’m trying to do, which is practice my photography skills by photographing people in an honest and gracious light. When possible, I always try to give the people I photograph a copy of their picture, even if it’s just through a text message or Instagram DM.

Building Community Through Street Photography

I’ve learnt a lot about myself and my community by going into the streets and engaging with my fellow citizens through photography. I’ve even started doing street portraits when I travel to new cities and countries, which has helped me engage with these places and their inhabitants in positive ways.

Has spending hundreds of hours on the street taking analog pictures made me a better photographer? Maybe. But it has made me understand that I was more isolated and out of touch from my fellow Londoners than I realized.

I’m a biology professor and in my day-to-day life I mostly interact with academics and undergraduate students. This is a diverse group of people, but their beliefs and lived experiences don’t necessarily reflect those of other individuals in the community at large.

Going downtown has allowed me to make new friends and meet people outside of my typical networks. I also love how if I were to leave this laptop right now and walk down Dundas Street there would be several individuals who I would know by name and vice versa. All of this has made me a better mentor, teacher and, most importantly, a better person.

I hope you enjoyed this series of summer street portraits. I’m still making my weekly photographic pilgrimages downtown. If you would like to see more of my photos, please consider following me on Instagram.

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