Growing up in a small town of 8500 people, it was always a challenge finding something interesting or unique to do. When I was in high school a few friends formed a band called The Vermicious Knid, I was intrigued by this and when they posted some info for a show they would be playing at the local YMCA in Brantford I decided to check it out.
This one show led to me to seeing shows on a weekly basis with a small group of amazing people who also had an intense passion for music. However we soon realized we were running out of options for putting on these small shows, so a few people decided to create one. The Ford Plant was an all ages venue downtown Branford that lived amongst the desolate downtown with boarded up buildings and absolute silence in the evenings, except for the one little corner where 30-50 kids would gather every week, and it changed my life.
Almost five years ago The Ford Plant closed down and the Brantford music scene went completely quiet, until a few people new and old to the scene started putting on small shows again at The Brantford Station Gallery. This past weekend the curators known as ZZZ put together it’s first festival known as SnooZZZefest which brought in roughly 100 people with reuniting bands, 3 days of music, an art auction, a river show, custom made pillows for each band and much more. The festival also prides itself on being produced with No!! sponsors, No!! government funding, No!! profit$, No!! bullshit, just FUN!
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Leading up to Canadian Music Week the announced lineup wasn’t really wowing me, and then METZ got announced for two back to back shows at Lee’s Palace.
The incredible raw energy this three piece Toronto powerhouse bring to the stage is absolutely insane, and always makes for an exciting concert to photograph.
With their new release of METZ II on Sub Pop, they ripped through new tracks like ‘Acetate’ and recent single ‘The Swimmer’ barely catching their breath in-between songs.
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I was super excited when I heard that my current favourite band Viet Cong from Calgary, Alberta announced a free show at the Opera House for Converse Rubber Tracks Live.
Coming off a handful of cancelled shows because their drummer broke his hand, he walked onto stage with his left hand replaced by a huge bloody monster hand. The band ripped through their new self titled album, who were then joined by members of Absolutely Free to help finish album closer “Death” stretching a 10min epic into an insane 20min stage destroyer.
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To celebrate the full festival lineup and 10 year anniversary of Osheaga, I present to you a selection of images from my visit to Montreal in 2013 for this amazing festival.
I decided to take my very first camera which was a hand me down from my parents, an Olympus OM-10 with a 50mm. Four rolls of B&W 3200, and four rolls of Fuji colour slide film, however when the film was processed the slide film got sandwiched together, and I ended up with a variety of unintentional double (and sometimes triple) exposures.
Late last year I was commissioned by Tourism Toronto to shoot a variety of restaurants for their upcoming 2015 issue of Toronto Magazine. The photos were for an article by writer Amy Rosen entitled ‘Our Roots Are Showing’ which explores the ethnic diversity in Toronto’s food scene.
Here are a selection of images taken for the article including Susur Lee’s 2.0 take on nouvelle chinoise Luckee, Persian restaurant Takht-e-Tavoos with it’s Bedouin-esque lounge, and Bar Buca with it’s four-star Italian bar food.
Luckee
Takht-e-Tavoos
Bar Buca
Toronto
