Looking for a reason to visit Georgetown and drink some great English-style beers on cask at Machine House Brewery this week? The photo exhibit “TORONTO PUNK + OTHER TROUBLE” from Don Pyle, promoted by Fantagraphics Bookstore, promises to be a unique opportunity. Don’s images from the birth of the Toronto punk scene will be showing from Wednesday to Sunday at Machine House, and he’ll be on hand Friday to talk through some of the finer details of the photographs. The legendary Girl Trouble will play a show after Don’s talk on Friday about a mile away at Slim’s Last Chance.
Press Release:
DON PYLE
TORONTO PUNK + OTHER TROUBLE
Machine House Brewery In Georgetown
Photographs on display Wed Sept 24 to Sun Sept 28
Don Pyle’s Out-of-Focus Talking Slideshow Fri Sept 26 7:30 pmIn 1977, I bought my first 35mm camera, just in time for the golden-moment birth and ensuing melee of what is commonly referred to as punk, in Toronto, capturing the earliest gigs of local bands,primarily from 1977-79, including the Viletones, The Diodes, The Dishes, The Curse, Teenage Head and visiting ambassadors Iggy Pop, Ramones, The Clash and more.
The camera gave a shy 15-year old — wary of getting busted and thrown out — a reason to be in the front lines. Luckily, theCrash’n’Burn, Hotel Isabella, the Horseshoe, David’s back-alley gay disco and other dives turned a blind eye to the underage. Hidden behind my camera, observing yet unseen, I witnessed the birth of the revolution.
I joined my high school’s camera club to learn how to print, develop and to get free chemicals. At the time I could only afford to make contact sheets and a very limited number of prints. Thirty years later, I scanned my negatives and saw what I had for the first time. Images were restored as much as possible, revealing the hidden beauty behind the poor exposures and the scratched, dusty and watermarked negatives. Many of these photographs were shown publicly for the first time at The Beaver, in Toronto, in Spring 2007.
This eventually resulted in the publication of my first book, Trouble In The Camera Club, published by ECW Press.
I’m thrilled to be welcomed by Fantagraphics Bookstore, showing photographs and doing my Out-of-Focus Talking Slideshow in Seattle. Approximately 50 photographs, primarily from 1976 to 1980 with a smattering of contemporary images, will be on display and sale at Machine House Brewery in Georgetown from Wednesday Sept 24 to Sunday Sept 28. The talk will happen at 7:30 on Friday Sept 26.In my Out-of-Focus Talking Slideshow, I give a guided tour through photographs from my book Trouble In The Camera Club and more,looking at details in the background, things going on outside the frame and blurry asides.
Free.
Photographs, books and postcards will be on sale.
Trouble In The Camera Club is published by ECW Press and features 300 photographs, over 200 period graphics, essays by DPand introduction by Viletones vocalist Steven Leckie. Full colour, 8 x 10.
After the Friday talk, the great and legendary Girl Trouble will play at Slim’s! Do come.
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