![\"Willow](\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/Evans-V1_MG_7075-2-copy-3.jpg\")
<\/a>In the book\u2019s preface, Evans outlined the circumstances that led him back to Ontario Place, what he found there, the ways in which his photography had developed over time, and how the project took form. His introduction is followed by two essays: John Lorinc\u2019s outstanding account of the history of Ontario Place [editor’s disclosure: John Lorinc is a senior editor at<\/em> Spacing], and Maia-Mari Sutnik\u2019s probing discussion of Evans\u2019 photographic work and the context in which it can be best understood. The entire volume is divided into six sections, each with a brief descriptive introduction, also by Evans. Serving in effect as chapters, these offer a visual walking tour of many features of the two islands: the Cinesphere and Pods, the West Island, the Wilderness Adventure Ride, the shoreline and breakwaters bounding the West Island, the East Island, and Trillium Park.<\/p>\n In contrast to the doublespeak about Ontario Place now pouring out from the wellsprings of provincial bureaucracy, the texts in As it is<\/em> are clear, succinct and informative; there isn\u2019t an extra word anywhere. And the photographic sequences are equally well-crafted. There\u2019s a good reason for this: the book evolved through twenty-eight iterations before being finalized, during which time Evans worked intensively with curator David Harris and editor Beth Kapusta. Available online are John Lorinc\u2019s interview with Evans<\/a> about the project, and two very fine reviews, by Aria Novosedlik for Applied Arts<\/em><\/a> (October 2023) and by Adele Weder for Azure Magazine<\/em><\/a> (November 2023). I recommend them: for days I tried to write something as good, but had no success.<\/p>\n Eventually I came to realize that Evans\u2019 entire project could be appreciated more fully as a document than as a polemic, and that its documentary value would remain regardless of what might transpire at Ontario Place in the near term. Extended consideration of the photographs themselves\u2014compelling visual records of landforms that should, somehow, manage to outlast the present struggles over who will control them\u2014led me to think there were aspects of Evans\u2019 picture-making that deserved consideration on their own terms: most particularly, his attention to light, framing, perspective, and effective utilization of the black and white tone scale. Lastly, I began to see that his work could also be appreciated in relation to some photographers not necessarily associated with the main traditions of documentary picture-making.<\/p>\n The light changes as you approach the shore of Lake Ontario: there is more of it, you can see further, the horizon is a constant presence, the reflecting water is never still. In humid or overcast conditions, this light can seem to literally fill up your eyes; when the sun is out, it can reach right into your body. The vastness of the lake and sky, and the aliveness of light and weather, is something to contend with. Some photographers end up changing contrast or adjusting the density of the sky to better suit their expressive goals; but Photoshop or no, many who try this cannot achieve any sense of realism. In these images, however, Evans seems to have lifted out the luminance from the landscape in front of him, held it briefly in his camera, and directly transposed it onto the printed page. Very few photographers can do this, but you can see this kind of attention to light in Paul Strand\u2019s work from the Outer Hebrides, or, more recently, in Robert Adams\u2019 images made along the Pacific coast. Hiroshi Sugimoto, although he photographed light and water in an utterly different way, is the only other photographer I can think of who has this same degree of control over the gray scale while photographing at water\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n Throughout the book, interesting rhythms and cross-rhythms animate the forms within each frame. While the photographs are all horizontal, for the most part leading the eye across from left to right and upward from foreground to background, it is Evans\u2019 use of vertical accents that binds together the geometry of each composition. Evans worked for decades as an architectural photographer, and he told me that he became completely comfortable previsualizing his images on a view camera ground glass, where they would appear upside down and backwards. \u201cI learned quickly,\u201d he said, \u201cthat if the verticals were right, the image would work,\u201d and this has been a feature of his work ever since. One of the earliest of Evans\u2019 projects that I studied in detail was Making Room <\/em><\/a>(1983), a series of construction photographs of The Atrium on Bay: I\u2019d never seen complex formal arrangements rendered with such logic and clarity, and I often wondered if Evans had another, secret life as a mathematician. Whether or not this is true, it\u2019s interesting to consider.<\/p>\n While both Evans himself and Maia-Mari Sutnik refer to the New Topographics movement in relation to Evans\u2019 approach, I\u2019ve always found a certain coolness and detachment in that work\u2014and, as often as not, visible threads of irony or critique. But Evans\u2019 photographs, especially those in this volume, are not ironic. Rather, they are vibrant, sharp-edged, formally resolved, and well-placed on the page. They are also, despite their urgency in relation to the threats posed to Ontario Place and despite their lightness and transparency, elegiac; I don\u2019t see irony anywhere. The photographer Minor White liked to say that a good photograph was \u201cboth lyrical and accurate,\u201d and that holds true for Evans to a far greater degree than for those associated with the New Topographics. I\u2019d go so far as to say that of all the influences he mentions, Evans is closer to Atget than anyone else, despite the many differences in their situations and working methods.<\/p>\n Thinking more about the horizontal framing, the frequent presence of the horizon itself, and Evans\u2019 use of wide-angle lenses (significantly wider than those used by Walker Evans, who was also mentioned as an influence by both Evans and Maia-Mari Sutnik), I was eventually led to the wide-field work of Art Sinsabaugh and Josef Koudelka, who used panoramic cameras to wonderful effect. Sinsabaugh\u2019s Midwest Landscapes<\/a> resonate deeply with Evans\u2019 work, as do Josef Koudelka\u2019s projects from The Black Triangle in the Czech Republic and his Industrial Landscapes<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 [T]he photographer starts with the frame,\u201d wrote John Szarkowski in The Photographer\u2019s Eye<\/em>. \u201cThe photograph\u2019s edge defines content \u2026 the frame is the beginning of a picture\u2019s geometry.\u201d While it was an entirely different world when Szarkowski wrote this\u2014I hadn\u2019t opened this book in years and was amazed to see it cost $6.95\u2014the accuracy of this simple observation still holds. And everything about Evans\u2019 images, and about his new book, represents an exercise in good framing. The content is detailed and accessible: nothing is glossed over or hidden, nothing is idealized, mis-stated or obscured. The texts are thoughtful and full of information, but comprehensible to anyone; and the photographs are consistently well-seen and beautifully rendered. It took a while to grasp the book in its entirety, and to see past the frame of mind in which I initially approached it. But now As it is<\/em> sitting on my desk rather than a bookshelf; and, however the future of Ontario Place gets decided, I hope it wins a prize.<\/p>\n All photographs by Steven Evans.<\/em><\/p>\n Cross-posted from Don Snyder’s website<\/a>. Don Snyder is a Professor Emeritus at the School of Image Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University and has served twice as department Chair.![\"Sky,](\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/Evans_MG_8284.jpg\")
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