Close portrait of a bearded man wearing a black knit cap and gold-framed glasses against a pale sky.

The Year Book / Prologue / 00

King of the Rise

Before the crown, there was a camera. Before the camera, a fracture.

21 frames / ORIGIN_000 / KEEP WALKING

Follow the chapter into sound

The city did not know my name.

I arrived carrying a future that no longer fit. Toronto rose around me, all glass and distance. Somewhere above the noise, a window held the last of the light. I did not know what I was becoming. I knew I wanted to see it.

Words and a small sun drawn into sand among footprints.
01

Written in the sand

Details & places
A person extends a wooden-covered, ring-bound book across a counter lit by small coloured lights.
02

The book opens

Details & places
A child in a blue cap and dinosaur-print top looks down in warm outdoor light.
03

Before the world grows loud

Portraits

A door opened into sound.

Music was the first room that let me in. The floor moved. Faces vanished into smoke and returned in flashes. I raised the camera before I knew everything it could do. For a fraction of a second, the room held still. I had found a language.

Close portrait of a child with blue eyes looking sideways, with warm light falling across the face.
04

A world in a glance

Portraits
An older bearded man in sunglasses, a dark cap and a blue checked shirt, photographed outdoors.
05

Stories carried quietly

Portraits
Translucent lace-up boots stand beside a curb scattered with dry leaves.
06

What the road remembers

Details & places
Two people share a smiling moment at a picnic beside a white basket.
07

A place beside you

Life & culture

Some silences change the light.

There are things I keep outside the frame. Their weight is in the work: the way I wait for an expression, the way I notice an empty chair. I began collecting the small things the world was prepared to walk past. They had become impossible for me to miss.

A cropped street portrait showing a dark jacket, gold chain and watch against grey tiled architecture.
08

Taking up space

Editorial
A child holds a camera on a wooded trail while an adult stands behind with hands on the child’s shoulders.
09

Learning to look

Life & culture
A camera in the foreground frames a man with glasses and a patterned shirt in blue and red light.
10

On the other side of the lens

Editorial

The ordinary began to burn.

A leaf stopped me in the street. Then a stranger’s hands. Then my own reflection. The city kept offering scenes without asking whether I was ready. I learned to look before I reached for the camera. That small delay changed the photograph.

A white dog wearing dark sunglasses and a pink harness sits outdoors.
11

An unbothered kind of royalty

Life & culture
A man in a red track jacket stands beside a white vintage car beneath a cloudy sky.
12

The road is still open

Editorial
Two smiling people sit close together under a colourful blanket, facing a television.
13

Our little world

Life & culture
A child in a blue cap and dinosaur-print top is seen from behind against soft green foliage.
14

Toward the green

Portraits

Paper became a kingdom.

I printed what I could not bear to misplace. Loose moments gathered into an album. Faces found neighbours. A year became something I could hold. The Year Book began without a throne, without a witness, with the quiet insistence that these moments deserved to remain.

A camera operator with glasses and hair in a bun works with a cinema camera outdoors at dusk.
15

Keeping the last light

Editorial
A person in a black T-shirt and shorts sits among rocks and trees with their head lowered.
16

Room to be still

Portraits
A person in a black baseball cap studies a camera while seated indoors.
17

The act of looking

Editorial

The rise had no audience.

I kept walking after the lights went out. Somewhere along the way, the photographer began to emerge from the person carrying the camera. Aurelian would call it a beginning. Criminal Code would ask who left the door unlocked. I was already outside, looking for the next frame.

Close portrait of a bearded man wearing a black knit cap and gold-framed glasses against a pale sky.
18

Eyes on the horizon

Portraits
A blue Smurf figure with a white hat and long string legs hangs among vintage objects in a shop.
19

Small guardians

Details & places
A small striped woodland animal sits on a mossy log surrounded by green forest.
20

The quiet witness

Details & places
A cook in a white hat and uniform works behind the window of a brightly lit food counter.
21

While the city gathers

Life & culture

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