The Quiet Lives of Sankofa Square

On a cold Sunday in January, I set out to capture an entirely different photo essay than what I ended up shooting. (It's not nearly as fun, but you can check it out here if you want). 

One key destination was the recently named Sankofa Square. I'll be honest: it felt quite strange walking into it for the first time after the Yonge-Dundas sign had been taken down. I sat on a bench across the Square and started taking photos of my surroundings - boring, general photos of buildings, billboards, and such. On a whim, I took a photo of a man in an orange coat staring up at a building and taking a photo of it. It was almost a "meaningless" photo - I thought nothing of it until I saw the result and realized it was one of the best photos of the day. 

Throughout the rest of the day, I still continued to travel to the rest of my locations I had planned out. But I was no longer there for the places. I was there for the people. Random, unknown people who I'd never met and who most of the time didn't even notice me - they were by far the most interesting photos of the day.

I call this collection "The Quiet Lives of Sankofa Square" because that's where this whole accidental idea began. The truth is, you'll see a good number of photos that aren't even from there. Just don't worry about the name too much.

-MW

P.S. - The one at the end of MLG really shouldn't be included here, but I love the shot and didn't have anywhere else to put it :)