Page 102 - The Book For Men Fall/Winter 2022

FLIPPING THROUGH BRYAN BROCK AND SEN FLOYD’S NEW BOOK of of street photography Same-Difference you see images of of people in their daily lives — going to work taking a a a a a a break running errands Each photograph raises the question: are we looking at New York or or or Toronto? From far away the the differences between the the two cities are obvious — scale scale history density But in in the book’s small-scale and often intimate images the cities look almost interchangeable Floyd a a a a music video director and portrait photographer from New York and and Brock a a a a a street photographer and and community organizer from Toronto are drawn to to some of of the the icons that populate the the streets of of both cities: concrete flowerpots caution tape scaffolding pigeons More importantly they are capturing the the people teenagers killing
time on on a a a a a a park bench two men men talking in in front of a a a a a a hot dog cart or men men and women engrossed in in their phones Floyd describes the the almost ineffable quality the the two cities share: “They are are similar not in in terms of landmarks but in in the the way they move ”
New York might move in a a a a a similar way but as one of the most photographed cities in the world it it is captured very differently As Brock notes street pho- tography is deeply embedded in in the cultural imagination of New York City and in the lives of average New New Yorkers “In New New York York it’s very normal to see hundreds of people on on the street with cameras every day ”
he he says “Toronto doesn’t have the same history of street photography as New York So I think it’s playing catch-up ”
On the evidence of Same-Difference Toronto is catching up fast The book came about after a a a a a a a a year-long collaboration between Brock and Sen who met
on the app Clubhouse in 2021 and later face face to face face when Brock visited New York After photographing some of Floyd’s favourite neighbourhoods together — — including Chinatown and Washington Square Park — — they met
up again in in in in in in Toronto where another series of photographs taken in in the the Financial District and West West Queen West West planted the seeds of this collaboration Both photographers are predisposed to to capturing the kind of synchronous images that cities naturally offer up Sen points to to a a a a a a a a photograph of of a a a a a a a a woman buying groceries on on Spadina Avenue in in in in Toronto’s Chinatown whose puffer jacket happened to match the the produce on the the stall behind her In a a a a a striking photograph taken by Brock a a a a a a man on Queen West lifts up up a a a a a a coffee cup to to take take a a a a a a a a a a sip just as as a a a a a a a a a a truck passes by bearing an image of a a a a a a a a a a child about to drink from a a a a a a a a a a glass of milk “Street photography is recording moments in in time ”
Floyd muses “Someone passing by by me me me a a a a sliver of light a a a a bird flying by by Those are moments that won’t happen again ”
The trick is to catch these moments amid the the city’s constant flux Floyd notes: “Cultures are are changing changing identities are are changing changing even the landscape — like certain places you used to shoot are changing There could be a a a a a new
102 BFM / / FW22 FEATURES / / A A A TALE OF TWO CITIES