St John the Divine, NYC

Two views of Griffintown, Montreal

Griffintown, once an Irish neighbourhood in Montreal, was rezoned for commercial and industrial use back in the early 1960s, and for the most part stopped being the close-knit ethnically Irish community that it had been for the previous hundred years or more. Now, Griffintown is the home of some of the most innovative high-tech companies in Canada. It was saved, perhaps only temporarily, from being re-developed, by the current recession. The plans that the city and private developers proposed were clearly on a scale that is not appropriate to Montreal and ignored the historical, business, and cultural development of Montreal by, in effect, moving the downtown core to this area. To some people it sounded wonderful, to me it sounded like a dog's breakfast of half-formed ideas that would not have served Griffintown or the city well. Griffintown is located between downtown Montreal and the St. Lawrence River, thus prime real estate. Some kind of development is inevitable, but it will have to be thought out much better than the proposal that was made for this area.

Lost, found, missing... (two)

Art at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Lost, found, missing... (one)

Probably because of the context of these photographs, they have a forlorn look to them. Family photographs become mug shots for the lost. Many of us know the archetype of being lost. I've been lost several times and wandered, perhaps in "circles" as they say, and it was a miserable experience. Here we have lost cats, dogs, people... how many are found? How many find new homes, or no home at all.

Sunday Morning at Alexis Nihon Plaza, downtown Montreal

The solarium at Alexis Nihon Plaza, Montreal (two), end of the day