The Island | Kristan Klimczak

The Toronto Islands have always fascinated me like all places integral to a city’s character that have an entrenched communal routine which evolved organically over time so much so that to lose them would be to lose part of what the city is.

In my other work I have been drawn to people and how they interact and react to these specific places. This work is a kind of inversion that came about organically. I went to the Toronto Islands often during the flood of 2019 and, because a large portion of the land mass was under water, I found myself isolated in a typically very populated park. I became mesmerized by all the private secret places of the islands and how these small enclaves, although without people, contained definite presence. I continued to photograph throughout the pandemic when solitude was imposed and when fabricating sanctuary became a necessity and set out to build a fictionalized world as a means of exploring the resilience and necessity of imagination.

Bio:

Kristan Klimczak is a self taught photographer who lives in Toronto, Canada. She published You Lucky People, a photobook that traces the death of Honest Eds, in 2019. Her work has appeared in Aint Bad, CBC Arts, Der Greif Guest Room, Hamburger Eyes and The Journal of Grievances Vol. 3 by Antics Publications, among others.

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