Begun sixty years ago as a simple breakwater to protect Toronto’s Outer Harbour, the Leslie Street Spit has grown into an elaborate peninsula five kilometers long. Largely reclaimed by nature, the Spit now includes almost five square kilometers of cottonwoods, wetlands, and meadows, and is managed as one of the largest wildlife habitats in the city.
The Spit’s southern shoreline remains an active dumpsite for demolition and excavation rubble. It’s a changing landscape of construction debris: concrete poles and slabs build the headlands, tangles of weathered rebar, stone, and brick form the beaches. While they were once the buildings and structure of the city, this lakefill now creates the land itself.
Shaped and broken by machines and by the elements, very little is more humble than these bricks and scraps. Presented here without the surrounding context, they invite examination for their own character and qualities. Resolutely mute, each one still speaks to its past life and stands as a part of the history of Toronto.
Matthew Piers Robertson
June 2012
The project includes eighteen images that were taken in place on the Leslie Street Spit during August and September of 2011. Conceived as a set from the very beginning, I'm pleased to offer these as complete portfolios, including the photograph and artists' statement above, as well as as individual prints. The image area is sized for an 8x10" matt on 8.5x11" paper, and given the white field, there is some flexibility in its presentation.
As I have mentioned previously, I do not produce "Limited Edition" prints. Instead I create artist-signed photographs in small print runs. The quantity of each run and the price for those prints is fixed. When those have sold out I may print an additional run, but the price will be fifty percent higher with each edition.
The full portfolio of eighteen images, plus the title page and artists' statement page with the photo above, is priced at $600. Two sets are available in this print edition. As these images are meant to be seen unframed, they are printed on Premium Glossy paper.
The single prints are intended for framing and are printed on Premium Luster paper. The first print edition is in sets of three, and each is available for $40.
Each image is also available directly from a print-on-demand lab. These can be ordered via the gallery, and while I have every confidence in their quality, these are not images that I have inspected or approved. Printed on 8x10" paper, these unsigned and non-editioned photographs are offered at $25 each.
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