Cinema, Toronto 1976

I have always loved this picture. First of all because it has intrigued me to no end trying to imagine what was the woman reading at the time it was taken. Her expression seems to be one of heightened emotion as if what she has just read has stirred a slight feeling of terror in her. Secondly, because it will always bring my memory back to the anticipated feeling of exhilaration I felt as a child just before entering the darkened realm of cinema theatres where my dreams would be unleashed. I grew up going to the cinema every week when I was a child and several days a week when I was a young man living as an adult in Toronto. I can easily recall the smell of the lobbies, the upholstery, the buttered popcorn and the magic lantern throwing its light like a beacon from a lighthouse at night. That is the magic that has been lost and that I still miss dearly. So there.
Today I have decided to open that old trunk that I keep in my attic and look for things old, perhaps a little unusual, and definitely nostalgic. These images were taken at a time in which my life was a constant search for visual excitement, when I used to roam the streets of Toronto, my city at that time, always looking around for things, anything, to photograph. This one is one of my favourite photographs, not only because it represents one of the biggest loves of my life besides my children-the cinema- but also because the negative has been lost for many years and there is only this old copy in existence.