The Last Issue #XtraMagazine. I grew up on Toronto weeklies and always looked forward to Thursday afternoons and ink stained fingers (until the dye change). I’m going to miss Xtra! #toronto #urbantoronto #ttc #fujifilmx30 #torontostreet #torontophoto #torontostreetphotography #instablog
I grew up on Toronto weeklies: eyeMagazine, Now and Xtra! I looked forward to Thursday afternoons pouring over the art and concert reviews, the next weeks listings and the features on Toronto’s creative people and communities. I even got my start as a writer in eye Magazine in the early 90’s writing and winning Naked for a Day contest columns. Eventually I became a freelance artist and writer for the Toronto Star, Xtra! and Fab Magazine.
Watching print media die a slow death was difficult to stomach and changed the course of my career. Just as I was hitting my stride as a freelancer, my editors were downsized, photos rates plummeted or the publications shuttered entirely. And so I focused on more commercial, creative career pursuits and website design, the later proving to be a smart choice!
Free weekly newspapers are redundant in 2015, but I will remember with great fondness scrubbing their sticky ink from my hands.