Steve Russell - Staff Photographer - @RussellPhotos
These are my favourite pictures and links to some of my favourite assignments.
Ten metre platform diver Meaghan Benfeito trains at Montreal 1976 Olympic Pool, April 2, 2012. Benfeito and diving partner Rosaline Filion won bronze in 10 metre platform synchronized diving in London.
Continue reading "Steve Russell's favourite pictures of 2012" »
February, the shortest month did not leave the Toronto Star photo department short of good news or great pictures.
The Photo Department is now under the direction of a new Visuals Editor, Taras Slawnych. We are pretty excited about that.
We have also won four Society for News Design awards of excellence for photography. So before we get into the February highlights, here are the four winners:
LUCAS OLENIUK - A protestor, unconscious and not breathing, was rushed away from Bahraini security forces after being shot in the head moments earlier. A group of Shiite anti-regime demonstrators drew fire from Bahrain security forces near Manama when they tried to march downtown to the Pearl Square from the town of Budaiya Friday evening. A state sanctioned pro-regime rally was underway in downtown Manama when the clash occurred. Read about the story behind this image here!
Tannis Toohey - Staff Photographer
December 9, 2010 It was festive down on Queen street even with the lack of snow as David Godsoe carries a Christmas tree out from the Toronto Beaches Lions Club Christmas tree lot.
February 12, 2011 - Amal Albaz, 16, sings and chants at a Toronto rally celebrating the resignation of President Mubarak and the freedom of Egypt, held at Yonge and Dundas Square.
February 6, 2011 - Families take advantage of Glen Stewart Park's two rinks, one for skating and the other for playing hockey Sunday morning.
July 20, 2011 - Not everyone is trying to escape the heat, some still like a good suntan, and cool breeze down at the beach in Toronto.
Toronto Argonaut Joe Eppele planned to climb the CN Tower in a Sasquatch suit (because he is from Squamish, BC) to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund. Regulations state he can't climb in the suit, but can wear it around before and after his climb. April 12, 2011
January 17, 2011 - Robert Jones' head tailor, Servino Stillo, sizes up a silly posing Matt Dusk as he tries on a Palizileri Cerimonia tuxedo for the Motionball Gala.
February 23, 2011 - Portrait of Toronto Maple Leaf, Joffrey Lupul in street clothes, GQ style, for story about his buying new clothes in Toronto, after his trade from L.A.
March 7, 2011 - Portrait photo of Donny Osmond for Richard Ouzounian Big Interview feature.
Portrait of AGO director Matthew Teitelbaum, who curated Paterson Ewen's retrospecitve at the museum. April 7, 2011
Nicholas Mellamphy poses for The Toronto Star's 30 Best Dressed List. May 27, 2011
Ariel Stagni 'ollies over the hip' in the newly opened Eighth Street Community skatepark in Etobicoke. Seen at lower right is J.J. Harrison, wearing a white t-shirt and white and red shorts. July 16, 2011
Gaelan Connell gives a battle cry and final strong kick across the finish line of the Toronto Goodlife Half Marathon. May 15, 2011
Ayisha Spence, (middle leaning over crime scene tape) doubles over in tears, and Lesley Parker, (right), react with cries and screams of disbelief as they watch the removal of the body of Clifenton Ford, 38, victim of an early morning shooting at G's Chill & Grill on Eglinton Ave. East near Midland. Both women have children fathered by Clifenton Ford, 38, Spence has 2 and Parker has 4. Ford was shot and killed this morning at 2:20am. March 28, 2011
Darren Smith removes Ivan, a North American bald eagle, from his truck to return to his perch after free flying at the north end of the airport. Smith is one of a whole team of Wildlife Control experts are utilized by Pearson Airport to use falcons, hawks, a one bald eagle and a dog to keep birds out of the engines of airplanes at Pearson. March 25, 2011
Tally, a female Harris Hawk flies out fast from the passenger side window in what they call "car hawking" - where the trainer drives the perimeter of the airfield looking for unwelcome wildlife and rolls the window down when they or Tally see something she can scare off. Darren Smith is one of a whole team of Wildlife Control experts utilized by Pearson Airport to use falcons, hawks, a one bald eagle and a dog to keep birds out of the engines of airplanes at Pearson. March 25, 2011
Portrait of Cathy Anagnostopoulos, middle, in her hospital room at Princess Margaret Hospital, with her husband Nick and their three children, Angela, 11 and Gregory, 10, and Alexander, 15 . In mid-February Cathy was a part-time pharmacist, raising her three children and kickboxing. She'd been having headaches. In the span of one week, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. She will need a stem cell transplant, but doesn't have a match in her family. The family is making a public appeal for people to join the registry -- which only takes a mouth swab and what is essentially a donation of blood. April 7, 2011
Rick Eglinton - Staff Photographer
Argos Quaterback Cleo Lemon still holds the ball but loses his helmet after being knocked down by Bombers Joe Lobendahn during first quarter action. July 23, 2011.
Steve Russell -Staff Photographer @RussellPhotos
A laneway off of Yonge is transformed into a movie quality rain scape in Curtis Grahauer's "I just Know Something Good is going to happen, 2011" during the 2011 edition of Nuit Blanche where the city core is transformed by the work of hundreds of artists in the sixth installment of the sunset-to-sunrise celebration of contemporary art in Toronto. October 1, 2011.
Andrew Francis Wallace - Staff Photographer
September 9, 2011 - Sailboats race on Lake Ontario as part of the 2011 Beneteau First 36.7 North American Championship.
by Bernard Weil, Chief Photographer/Multimedia
It's not every day one gets to dine with a famous former Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player. Such was the case when Photo Editor Tim Finlan handed me an assignment to photograph hockey legend Borje Salming, who was in town to promote his cookbook Grilling with Salming, at Toronto Star Food Editor Jennifer Bain's home.
When I arrived, the first thing I noticed was the pint sized barbecue, similar to one my son Tyler bought me for Christmas. Jennifer just purchased it for the shoot but voiced her concern that it might be too small. I knew it would not be an issue. As it turned out, Salming was unfazed by the puny grill and with legendary greatness, just shy of a hat trick, prepared a main dish of Chinook salmon from British Columbia and finished with grilled pineapple over coconut gelato and maple syrup.
“One thing I did learn on the ice . . . is that you can’t win without taking risks,” writes Salming in his cookbook. “The same rule applies to barbecuing: you must take some chances.”
Steve Russell - Staff Photographer
When the iPhone vibrates in the morning and I open that the first assignment of the day, the words jump out at me, "secret", "confidentiality agreement", ""artifacts", vault" and "archives" I wonder if I should bring my passport to work as I drive in I dreamingly think of the Vatican Archives depicted in "The DeVinci Code"
And although the vaults did not have the high tech look like those depicted in the movie, they did have items that captivated my interest, others had great value and others evoked emotion.
The archives of course were the Toronto District School Board's and while there were no letters from King Henry VIII or demands for payment from Michelangelo, the treasures were no less impressive.
Typewriters, computers, rulers, students artwork, Group of Seven artwork!
The trip into the secrets vaults launched me through memories of my school days and helped me understand those of my parents.
One of the gems in the collection, Tom Thompson's "Autumn Scene" painting that was purchased by the board in 1917. It is hidden away in a secret location where the Toronto District School Board house their Archival, Artifact and Fine Art Collection in Toronto. The board plans to bring more of these artifacts into the classroom to learn.
The collection has over one million objects that range from "Cranberry Lake" by Franklin Carmichael to the dreaded strap to jubilee medals to a spittoon to a document that show that Norman Bertume was enrolled in school in Toronto.
Media get a tour of the the hidden vaults that have everything from furniture to trophies to student artwork.
A Norval Morrisseau painting, upper left and others are part of the Toronto District School Board's Fine Art Collection.
Aaron Lynett of the National Post photographs Emily Carr's "Young Pines in Light"
Trophies in one of the vaults.
A great collection of rulers!
Dave Wakabayshi looks for a ledger that recorded corporal punishment in the documents vault.
When Toronto amalgamated all the documents from the six different boards were brought to the one vault.
This book that was donated to the school board bore an unexpected treasure as postcard cancelling a trip was tucked in it. The postcard was from Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.
While the monetary value of this violin is small, the educational value is great, the violin was donated to the Board after its owner, a high school student committed suicide. The suicide was in part precipitated with bullying, that can be seen on the back side of the violin, scratched in it reads "NAME WITHHELD is a fag."
The temporary marker that stood over Bugler Morgan Dudley's grave in Belgium is part of the collection. The board knows that Dudley went to Pape Avenue Public School but it is still researching where he went to high school, if he in fact did.
Just a little footnote on the grave marker above.
Bugler Morgan Dudley was 17 at the time of his death, his last known address of 707 Pape puts him in the neighbourhood that Map of the Week Blog editor Patrick Cain did on the addresses of World War One dead that shows the impact that the war had.
Map of the Week: Riverdale's First World War dead
If you find Bugler Morgan Dudley's poppy, click on it, it will offer up a few links, one to his attestation papers, where you can see his handwriting and signature.
To see that cross then see his handwriting, powerful stuff.