Eglinton West, after Caribana.
Two days post-parade, the West Indian strip slows down — and that's when it tells you who it really is.
The Monday after Caribana, Eglinton between Oakwood and Dufferin always feels like the day after a wedding. The big stuff is done. The flags are coming down off the rear-view mirrors. Patty places that ran out of cocoa bread on Saturday are restocking. The street is quieter, but it's also more itself.
This corridor — the one Toronto's West Indian community built in the seventies and held through forty years of pressure — is where The Yaad shoots most of its catalogue. Not because it's a backdrop, but because the people on it are the people we're making things for.
If you've never spent a slow Tuesday on Eglinton West, here's the loop: patty + cocoa bread from Randy's, a chat with whoever's at the counter at Caribbean Camera, fabric and bandana stops at the small shops between Dufferin and Oakwood, then dub in the speakers of whoever's parked across from the Albion records spot. That's the whole brand brief.
We're not interested in tourism shots. The next drop is photographed on this strip, in afternoon light, with people who actually live and work there. More on that soon.