Looking up. Looking back.

Old meets new
London, ON
September 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I have this weird habit that involves walking around neighborhoods and staring up at the architecture.

I’m not terribly tall, so I’m usually looking up at stuff, anyway.

Anyway, over the years it’s become a bit of a recurring theme with me, a touchstone in my photographic archives that reminds me of where I’ve been and what I’ve seen along the way.

It also freezes specific days in memory. Like this one from last September, where I had dropped our daughter off, as parents do, and was just far enough away from home that it made sense to stay out while I waited for her.

So I explored Dundas Street, London’s onetime retail mecca that is now in the throes of too many decades of decline and neglect. In between the homeless camps and discarded needles, old buildings - some restored, most awaiting their next chapter - stood, historically defiant, against the brilliant blue sky.

High overhead, fighter jets performing at the airshow flew efficient orbits through the wispy clouds as they waited their turn at show centre. On the sidewalk, the occasional pedestrian stared into the sky to see what was causing all that racket.

In other words, an ordinary day in an ordinary place. But still one worth holding onto in some way.

They all are, really. We just have to look up.

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