TTC Lines Part 1: Kipling
This is a project that I've been meaning to undertake for a long time. Each week, I will be featuring a different Toronto subway station through an ongoing photo essay that I hope will eventually cover the entire TTC system. Transit has been a recurring motif throughout many of my films, and to me, subways are the quintessential urban experience. While Toronto transit has often been the source of frustration through countless delays and closures, I'm nevertheless drawn to the idea that these subway lines are the veins of the city, circulating the life-blood of Toronto.
This series starts at Kipling station, the westernmost end of the Bloor-Danforth Line. I grew up in Mississauga, and this station served as the gateway to Toronto for me as a teenager. I remember getting my license, driving with my friends to Kipling station, and then heading downtown on the subway because parking was too expensive.
Now that I'm living in downtown Toronto, Kipling has taken on the reverse meaning whenever I visit my family in Mississauga. It's the transition point back to the place where I grew up.
Coming to Kipling to take pictures brought me to a previously unnoticed side of the station. It's much more of a hub than I realized. I've rarely visited the second floor of the station that leads to the connecting busses, which reveals barrel ceilings that connect doorways to the outdoors.
As you've no doubt noticed by this point, I enjoy creating symmetrical photos, which is perhaps a partial explanation for my fascination with subway stations, as they provide ample examples of symmetry and perspective.
The next station is Islington.
