On the Edge: Photographs of Toronto’s Downtown Waterfront 2023-2025 by Steven Evans

The fifty photographs in this exhibition collectively present a record of the expansive downtown waterfront in its current state of flux, from the water’s edge in the south to the Gardiner Expressway in the north, and from Cherry Street in the east to Dufferin Street in the west.

Steven Evans began photographing the industrial lands south of the Gardiner Expressway over 40 years ago as a media studies student. His long-standing fascination with the waterfront industrial landscapes and their architecture has endured through the years, and he has returned to photograph some of the inevitable changes as warehouses and factories gave way to condominiums and tourist attractions.

Since the fall of 2023, in the aftermath of the destruction of West Island at Ontario Place by the provincial government, Evans has undertaken an in-depth photographic project documenting the complex transformation of the downtown waterfront. Covering the expanse of the lakeshore, in the exhibition ‘On the Edge,’ Evans has created a much-needed record that highlights what we often overlook – the mundane, the typical, the absurd, and even the extraordinary.