For me, being a teenager in 1990s Toronto meant flipping through CDs on Sam the Record Man, watching friends’ messy shows at El Mocambo, and then gobbling up a 24-hour Big Breakfast at Fran’s restaurant before having the last one. subway home. A quarter of a century later, when people ask me why neon signs appeal to me, I think back to those nights.
Memories of the city are often created under the neon glow. That wash of color on our skin becomes part of every story. The brightest, like Sam’s huge spinning discs, which looked like UFOs descending Yonge Street, are beacons that draw people from all over, mesmerized and dazzled by the city.
I have been photographing neon signs in North America since the mid-2000s, as part of a love story I call The Buzzing Lights Project. In 2016, with the support of poster lovers across the continent, I launched a crowdfunding campaign to publish a book called “Buzzing Lights: The Fading Neon Landscape of North America”. By the time it reached the press, several posters that it had included had already faded.
Five years after its publication, I brought the series back to print with a follow-up photo magazine that reflected Vancouver’s signs: Missing, Rescued, and Restored. I also moved this project to Instagram @buzzinglights.
In Toronto, we are finally beginning to understand the heritage value of our neon signs and hopefully in the next decade there will be more conservation than destruction. These are just three of my favorite posters that continue to shine in the city.
The Mocambo
The lively, nearly two-story palm tree with sparkling coconuts, which adorns the front of the venerable live music venue, was transported on a flatbed truck a few years ago. It’s back now, restored, rewired, and better than ever, thanks to a caring new owner. Sitting on Spadina’s tram in the middle of a winter storm, you might mistake it for a mirage.
Zanzibar
Love it or hate it, the star-sequined gold facade of this gentlemen’s club is quite impressive by neon standards and stands tall (and loud) for lovers of old Yonge Street as the neighborhood fades into a bland condo lot.
The Skyline restaurant
Small but well-liked, this independent Parkdale restaurant loves its wonderful sign and the Westerners too. It has been restored along with the restaurant, inspiring photographers like myself, linocut printers (Flycatcher Press sells a great print), and painters as well (both David Crighton and Brandon Steen captured it perfectly).
Reference-www.thestar.com