This is My Toronto.

Earlier in April, we had a photography workshop as part of Keep Toronto Reading month and our celebrations of Toronto's One Book, Girls Fall Down. We asked for participants (and blog readers!) to send us their photos of their neighbourhoods and areas in this city they found beautiful, inspiring and more. We got some great feedback, and wanted to share some of these photos.

Seiyon sent us this first photo, above -- can you guess what famous landmark it is?

It's a shot of the CN Tower, just peeking out from behind a large building! He took a few photos of the tower from different angles, just to get a sense of the all the views it can provide.

Up top, EJ shot a photo of Queen St. West. Notice anything slightly strange about this? There are no cars and barely any people!EJ notes that when he took this, it was uncannily empty and quiet on an otherwise very busy street in Toronto. He quickly took this wide shot to capture what he felt was a unique moment.

 

 

To the left, Aleesha, captured an intersection where even the cracks in the pavement look strangely pretty. You get extra points if you can guess which intersection this is - all my east-end Torontonians probably have a clue!

 

 

 

 

 

Up above, Hamdi snapped this awesome shot: She says "This is a pretty view I was able to see after days of horrible weather. Toronto's unpredictability does have it upside..."

Ushani took a slightly different approach to urban photography, as you can see below. Instead of shooting a photo of a regular building, she snapped a shot of a building that had strategic wallpaper a mural painted on it to express its layers just peeling away, or "the life of the building diminishing." Can you identify this Toronto landmark?

You can find out more about this mural and its artist here!

 

These were just a few of the fun photos we were sent -- so be sure to come back later as we add more! Meanwhile, check out some books to help you with your own photo-taking skills, or browse some other great street photography!

Urban Travel Photography: a guide to taking better pictures

Street & Studio: an urban history of photography

Photography: the new complete guide to taking photographs