History

Sleuthing a ghost sign on River Street

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Ghost signs: The slowly fading hand-painted advertisements that cling to the sides of older buildings, redundantly promoting... Read More

Chinatown: Uncovering the future in the past, and the present in the future

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The new issue of Spacing includes an article by Paula Tran, “What will happen to Toronto’s Chinatown?” In... Read More

Recording Hart Massey’s Factory and Concert Hall

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In 1986, I photographed the historic, sprawling Massey Ferguson farm machinery plant in Toronto just as demolition work was getting... Read More

EXCERPT: Indigenous Toronto, Stories That Carry This Place

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This essay is excerpted with permission from Indigenous Toronto: Stories That Carry This Place (Coach House Books, 2021). NOW THAT WE... Read More

PODCAST: Spacing Radio 054, Packaged Toronto

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To celebrate Spacing‘s latest book, Packaged Toronto: a collection of the city’s historic design, we go deep into the... Read More

Research Road Redux

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During the Second World War, my mother, Louise MacCallum, was among the 7,500 employees of Research Enterprises Limited (REL), a... Read More

PACKAGED TORONTO: The type of book for font lovers

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Packaged Toronto is the newest book from Spacing — it focuses on the graphic design and packaging of products, pulled form the City of... Read More

How racism in Ontario schools today is connected to a history of segregation

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Toronto’s Africentric Alternative School first opened in 2009 after years of advocacy and then months of heated public debates and... Read More

NEW SPACING BOOK: ‘Packaged Toronto’ and the emergence of the city’s design aesthetic

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LINK: VISIT THE SPACING STORE TO BUY THIS BOOK Back in 2011, I was brainstorming ideas for future projects with local historian... Read More

EXCERPT FROM ‘UNCLE’: Aunt Jemima in Chicago

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Excerpted with permission from Uncle: Race, Nostalgia and the Politics of Loyalty, published this month by Coach House Books... Read More