Big City Toronto, Small Town Ajax
We lived in Toronto for many years — a beautiful, complex, ever‑changing city. Eventually, we moved to Ajax, even while continuing to work and study in Toronto and Mississauga. Why leave the city we loved? And how does life feel now?
Anyone who has lived in the Greater Toronto Area since the 1980s knows how much the region has changed. You have to constantly evaluate your situation to stay ahead. At the time we moved, Ajax offered the most realistic path for us to own a home.
Recently, though, as I explore Toronto more thoughtfully through The Life Institute walks, I’ve felt a quiet nostalgia for city life — the energy downtown, the architecture, the small discoveries around every corner.
Travelling between Ajax and Toronto is consistently easy, reliable, and relatively affordable thanks to Ontario’s One Fare Program. With PRESTO’s tap‑and‑pay system, I only pay once when transferring between TTC and GO Transit. Transfers are valid for three hours on trips starting on GO Transit and two hours on trips starting on the TTC, and the networks connect seamlessly.
A typical trip looks like this: a 10‑minute drive to the Ajax GO Parking Garage, a GO train ride to Union Station, then a short walk to the subway, streetcar, bus — or sometimes straight to my destination. On my most recent outing, I tried something new: Line 5 Eglinton, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. I took it from Eglinton Station to Kennedy Station, connected to the bus that took me to Eglinton GO, where I caught the GO train back to Ajax, picked up my car, and headed home. I have to admit — Line 5 was impressively smooth and well‑designed, especially after the frustrations many commuters felt with the Line 6 Finch West rollout.
Toronto gives me the architecture, the rhythm, the geometry. Ajax — a commuter town at heart, just a 50‑minute ride from Union Station — gives me the quiet, the space, the shoreline I’ve come to appreciate. Together, they shape how I see — and what I choose to photograph.
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Transit and Movement
Public Spaces & Civic Design
Memories & Home
Nature & Skies
A small series created during Brogan McNab’s City to Set: Street Shooting and Scouting photowalk, exploring how environment, instinct, and narrative shape on‑location editorial imagery. Shot in real time on the streets of Toronto, these photographs follow Sirat through a sequence of quiet emotional shifts — from tension to release, from inwardness to openness — revealing how the city becomes a set when you learn to see it that way.
Model: Sirat (@sirat_xo)
Photographed during City to Set: Street Shooting & Scouting with Brogan McNab, hosted by Vistek Toronto.
Learn more about Brogan’s work at broganmcnab.com.
