Photography at Allan Gardens Conservatory in winter and what I learned about hope.

On Allan Gardens, urban nature, and falling back in love with Toronto

Toronto in January is gray. Heavy and unrelenting.

I started going to Allan Gardens in April, so by the time winter arrived I was already deep into the project. And what I discovered was that the conservatory in winter is something completely different from the conservatory in spring. It's a refuge. You walk in from the cold street and suddenly you're warm, you're surrounded by green, there are flowers. The light comes through the glass roof and softens everything.

I'm a Torontonian. I've lived here most of my adult life. But somewhere along the way I had stopped loving it. City life began to wear on me. Getting anywhere felt like a struggle. People felt like strangers. This project changed that.

Going to Allan Gardens every week and watching families come in on cold Sunday afternoons, teenagers sitting together under the conservatory glass or enthralled by the flowers, elderly visitors moving slowly through the tropical section: I was reminded of what cities can do when they get it right. Here was a free, public, beautiful space where people of every age and background came to be with living things. Together.

There's real community in that. A free, safe place where people can gather and share something wordless or find solitude among the plants if that's what they need.

By the time spring came back around and I completed the year, I had fallen back in love with Toronto. It was based on me reawakening to the things that inspired me about the everyday life of the city. Even getting to the conservatory became part of the practice. Allowing the time it took to get there, whether I rode my bike or hopped on a College St. streetcar, where the light and the city passing by made for other photographic opportunities along the way.

The photographs in this series are my attempt to share that with you. They open May 1st as part of CONTACT Photography Festival. I hope they make you want to go to a conservatory, or a park, or just stand next to the tree outside your door for a few minutes.

That's enough. That's really enough.

In the Hours of Light opens May 1st as part of CONTACT Photography Festival at three Toronto venues — Ezra's on Dupont, Supercoffee on Davenport, and Supernova on Broadview.