Blog – Page 13 – Exhibit Change

Through My Lens – reflections

Posted on September 16, 2011September 3, 2014 by Jenn Chan

Over the past 10 days as the themes rattled around in my head, I have been overwhelmed by how much more I have loved Toronto and more importantly – the PEOPLE! I have been blown away by the people who lead our neighbourhood walking tours, by the people who attended our walking tours, by the hundreds of pictures we have collected so far and the stories of people’s photography adventures.

THANK YOU!

Thank you for reminding me why we do this work! We started this project to get people to take a second look at the city and to be inspired to take positive action. And I know that the project has done that for many individuals already and for me too. I am buzzing with excitement and admiration for the powerful moments and images that I have come across these last 10 days.

What is green? How does Toronto express itself artistically? Where do you see change? Where do you belong? What is your everyday? How do you move through Toronto? What inspires Toronto? What fuels Toronto? What are the secrets of Toronto?

These themes are the center piece to the beginning of our Through My Lens conversations, we started with the photography adventure and were able to capture so many perspectives and these images will now be the focal point of our Nuit Blanche exhibit as vistors curate them into a community exhibit in a rental truck. We are looking to the community to tell us what they are focusing on.

For me, the themes had me not only looking for great shots in my day to day, but also thinking about the bigger picture of how these themes mean to me. I was especially struck by the final themes of What inspires Toronto? What fuels Toronto? and What are the secrets of Toronto? I know that Toronto and I have its issues, but I really renewed my love for Toronto. From the Urban Affairs Library closing, to seeing Cirque du Soliel in a parking lot, to walking to work, I know that the good and bad are part of what makes Toronto Toronto and that is what keeps me wanting to do more.

Expect to see a lot more projects from us that are inspired by these 10 days.

Inspire Yourself,

Jenn

This is why we do it…

Posted on September 8, 2011September 3, 2014 by Jenn Chan

Exhibit Change is leading Through My Lens as a project to get to know what people are paying attention to in the city. We created Through My Lens as a way to get people to take a second look at what is around them. We often get settled into a routine and lose track of what else is going on around us, the 10 themes for Through My Lens are curated to encourage you to look again. There are over 100 photographers participating in Through My Lens, so we are expecting to see a lot of amazing pictures and capture a lot of stories. The images from Through My Lens will be available to visitors at our Nuit Blanche exhibit to curate onto our rental truck. It is going to be a spectacular visual statement as to what the city is focusing on and what the community is saying. Inside the rental truck, there will be a cardboard cityscape as a backdrop to more conversation and an interactive photo-shoot. Through My Lens is a photography project on the outside, but for us it is a way to use a creative tool to get people into discussion about the city.

Through My Lens is a 10 day, city focused, themed photography adventure with 4 neighbourhood walking tours. Each neighbourhood walking tour is intended to inspire our photographers to explore, capture and share what our city has to offer. On September 7, we kicked off Through My Lens with a walking tour in the Junction. We walked for 2 hours and took many pictures. On September 10, we will be heading to Jane and Finch and discovering the environmental side of the neighbourhood. On September 11, we will be walking through the history of the design and people of social housing on the East End of Toronto. And our last walking tour will be on September 14, from Grange Park to Jane Jacob’s house in the Annex.

Exhibit Change is a design driven community engagement organization. All of our projects use design and play to engage citizens into community conversations. We visual our projects lending itself to be a platform for people to be creative, design and make positive action. Sometimes our materials are play-doh, lego and pipe cleaners, this time it is photography, but every time we do a project we do it to build community ownership.

Through My Lens is a collaboration project with Exhibit Change, Toronto Urban Exchange and Hello-Foto.