What I saw at York Woods branch

York Woods branch lies enviably at the juncture of two extensive ravine systems, Derrydown Park and Black Creek Parklands. Everywhere you look there are trees and bushes, as well as Jane-Finch's ubiquitous high-rise apartment blocks. The landscape is an evocative collision between the natural and the man-made. Check out these photos taken by a staff member on a cell-phone. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photography is a great hobby. Toronto Public Libary has lots of photography books to inspire you. Below is a small selection of books by photographers working with the complexity of urbanization:

A New American Picture by Doug Rickard 2014 – Rickard ransacked Google Earth to find images that document the ravages of America's selective economic decline. 

 

American Night by Paul Graham 2003 - Graham's photographs portray the complete separation between America's middle and lower class areas, and the emptiness found in both.  

 

American Prospects by Joel Sternfeld 2003- Sternfeld photographs the southwestern US where the edges of suburbia overtake the rural vistas. 

 

William Eggleston, for now  2011 – One of the first and most inventive practitioners of colour photography, Eggleston used the aesthetic of the snapshot with high-end professional equipment to create unsettling glimpses into a Southeastern U.S. that was disappearing under the onslaught of commercial development. 

 

 

  Detroit Disassembled by Andrew Moore 2010 - This book captures the grandeur of this once great industrial city and the tragedy of its devolution.

 

Urban blight is transformed by these uncanny photographers into images that are eerily strange and strangely familiar. They find beauty and human pathos in unexpected places.