On Friday evening, August 21, 2026, Art Imagined Photography made its debut in Toronto, Canada, with photographic work appearing on the large-scale digital displays at Sankofa Square, at Yonge and Dundas Street West, as part of the Art In Public Spaces initiative.

For the next four weeks, the work will be presented every Friday and Saturday evening from 8:00 to 10:00 PM, bringing contemporary photographic art into one of Toronto’s most active and recognizable public spaces.

The exhibition marks another step in my continuing exploration of where photography can live, how it can be experienced, and what happens when art moves beyond the walls of a traditional gallery.

Photography in the Middle of the City

There is something very different about encountering art when you are not specifically looking for it.

In a gallery or museum, we make a conscious decision to enter a space devoted to art. We expect to slow down, look and consider what is in front of us.

Public art changes that relationship.

At Sankofa Square, the audience may be heading to dinner, meeting friends, leaving work, attending an event or simply walking through downtown Toronto. For a few moments, the surrounding commercial imagery and movement of the city give way to something unexpected: a photographic image asking the viewer to stop, even briefly, and look.

That unexpected encounter is a large part of what makes Art In Public Spaces so compelling to me.

Photography becomes part of the environment rather than something separated from it.

Exploring the Japanese Concept of MA

The work being shown in Toronto is centered around the Japanese concept of MA.

MA is often described as the space, pause or interval between things, but its meaning extends beyond simply describing empty space.

It is the idea that what exists between objects, moments, sounds or people can be just as important as the objects themselves.

In visual art, MA can be found in negative space, silence, separation, balance and restraint. Rather than trying to fill every part of an image, it asks us to consider what happens when space is allowed to exist.

That concept has become increasingly important in my photographic work.

We live in a world that constantly competes for our attention. Images, advertisements, screens, messages and information surround us almost continuously. Against that backdrop, the idea of intentionally creating room for stillness feels particularly relevant.

And perhaps there is an interesting contradiction in presenting work about space and quiet on enormous digital screens in the middle of one of Canada’s busiest urban intersections.

That contrast is part of what makes this exhibition particularly meaningful.

Photography, Collage and Reconstruction

The Toronto exhibition also represents an evolution in the way I am creating photographic images.

The process begins with an original photograph, but the finished piece is not simply a photograph displayed exactly as it was captured.

The photograph is printed and then physically cut into individual sections. Those pieces are rearranged and reconstructed by hand into a new composition.

The reconstructed work is then photographed again, creating an entirely new photographic image from the original.

Selective AI enhancement is sometimes introduced near the end of the process, not as a replacement for the photography or physical construction, but as another creative tool used to refine and extend the finished image.

The result exists somewhere between photography, physical collage and digital interpretation.

What began as a single captured moment is taken apart, reconsidered and rebuilt.

That process itself relates naturally to the idea of MA. The spaces created between individual pieces become part of the composition. What has been removed, separated or repositioned becomes just as significant as what remains.

From the Gallery Wall to the Public Square

As a photographer, I have had the opportunity to show work in exhibitions internationally, but there is a fundamentally different experience in seeing an image displayed within a public environment on this scale.

A traditional exhibition invites people into the world of the artist.

Public art brings the artist’s work into their world.

That distinction matters.

Someone walking through Sankofa Square may spend only a few seconds with an image. Another person may stop and study it. Someone else may photograph it, wonder about it or simply carry a fleeting impression of it with them as they continue through the city.

Every one of those encounters is valid.

Photography does not always need a gallery wall, an explanation or even a captive audience to have an impact.

Sometimes it simply needs to appear in an unexpected place at the right moment.

Four Weeks in Toronto

The Art Imagined Photography presentation at Sankofa Square will run for four consecutive weekends:

Friday & Saturday evenings
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM

August 21 & 22
August 28 & 29
September 4 & 5
September 11 & 12, 2026

Sankofa Square
Yonge & Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

For anyone who happens to be in downtown Toronto during the exhibition, I hope you have an opportunity to see the work where it was intended to be experienced: surrounded by the movement, architecture, people, light and energy of the city.

For me, having Art Imagined Photography become part of that environment, even for a few moments at a time, is an incredible opportunity.

For four weeks, the photographs will not be waiting for people to enter a gallery to find them.

They will be out in the world, waiting for the world to pass by.