Lest you get the idea that I travel to and photograph completely depopulated urban areas, I thought I’d do a feature on people in urban areas, doing things. Part of the reason I don’t have many photos of people out in public is, believe it or not, I’m shy behind my camera. I’m working on getting better at taking people’s pictures that I don’t have a relationship with.

I saw this young man on the street, playing with his phone. I liked his look and wanted a candid shot. I think it worked.

Two young women buying gelato bars from a vintage canvas-top delivery truck. The truck is almost a scooter it’s so small. I wouldn’t want to be the ice cream vendor, having to stand stooped over under the cover all day. Unless I were Peter Dinklage, then I would fit comfortably. But if I were Peter Dinklage, I’d have better things to do with my time than selling ice cream bars. Like trying to manage the kingdom without getting killed by my sister.

I’m seeing more cities installing public plazas like this where they close off part of a street, put in plants and chairs, and turn the area into a social space for people to relax and interact. The most notable example is parts of Broadway off of Times Square and Herald Square in New York City. Here is a spot in Toronto where they’ve adopted the same idea – obviously successful, from the napping young man. You can see a tiny piece of the Scotiabank Theater in the upper left of the image, which is where I went to my international short films screening at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival).

I had shown this before, in my color series about the Distillery District. Here it is again, from a different angle, in black-and-white. The distillation sculpture draws people in and encourages interaction, both under and around it. It also makes a great focal point for the Distillery District space – you can always tell someone “meet me at the sculpture in an hour” and you won’t get lost trying to reconnect.