Full Frontal T.O.: Exploring Toronto's Architectural Vernacular

(Paperback)

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Description

For over thirty years, Patrick Cummins has been wandering the streets of Toronto, taking mugshots of its houses, variety stores, garages, and ever-changing storefronts. Straightforward shots chronicle the same buildings over the years, or travel the length of a block, facade by facade. Other sections collect vintage Coke signs on variety stores or garage graffiti.

Full Frontal T.O. features over three hundred gorgeous photos of Toronto's messy urbanism, with accompanying text by master urban explorer Shawn Micallef.

Patrick Cummins has photographed Toronto's built environment since 1978 and has worked as an archivist in Toronto since 1986.

Shawn Micallef is the author of Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto and a senior editor at Spacing magazine.

Reviews

'As Toronto grows into a more mature, more compelling city, a new group of non-academic, street-smart urbanists has emerged to appreciate it -- with-it young writers, architects and men and women about town who love big cities and see things in Toronto that most of us miss. Shawn Micallef is one of the sharpest of this sharp-eyed breed.' -- Globe and Mail 'For the past six years, Micallef ... has become Toronto's unofficial tour guide, the flaneur of Hogtown.' -- National Post

Author Bio

Patrick Cummins: Patrick Cummins has photographed aspects of Toronto's built environment since 1978. He has worked since 1986 with the City of Toronto's archival program, specializing in photographic, cartographic and architectural records. He has had work featured in several award-winning photo exhibitions. Shawn Micallef: Shawn Micallef is a senior editor at Spacing magazine (spacing.ca); a co-founder of [murmur], the location-based mobile-phone documentary project (murmurtoronto.ca);and founding editor of the weekly Toronto web magazine, Yonge Street. He writes about cities, culture, buildings, art and politics for a variety of media outlets, and he is also an instructor at the Ontario College of Art and Design.