Arthur Goss's photographs reveal Toronto's streetscapes, 1910–1939

In May 2026, as part of the Contact Photography Festival, the City of Toronto Archives opened a new didactic exhibition entitled "Subseries 58: Department of Public Works Roadway photographs." The exhibition, which runs until April 31, 2027, features a photo series created between 1910 and 1957 by City Photographer Arthur Goss and his successor Howard MacDonald.

Curator Paul Sharkey has taken a conceptual approach to the collection, arranging large numbers of images into "repetitive grids based on visual similarities" that "reveal the creativity of the photographers by removing the photos from their original documentary context and arranging them by visual themes, associations, repetitions and typologies."

Goss, who was already an accomplished artist before he was commissioned by the City to head his own department, provided photography services to all City divisions from 1910 to 1939. His successor, Howard MacDonald, laboured from 1940 until the position of City Photographer was eliminated in 1957. The artistic and technical quality of the photos in the Roadway series deteriorated markedly during MacDonald's tenure.

The photographs Goss took for the Roadways series demonstrate his ability to animate an image from edge to edge, often by choreographing random street traffic to balance the composition. Roadway No. 109 from April 1914, looking north on Spadina at Queen Street, features fifteen moving figures, five vehicles and a wheelbarrow, yet nothing seems out of place. The dismal weather is visceral, creating a powerful mood that transcends the banal scene.

Goss was also skilled at placing a single figure on a large stage. Roadway No. 339 from October 1914 depicts a workman in the foreground of a deep perspective of steel rails. The shallow depth of field emphasizes the man's posture and clothing, revealing a hole in the elbow of his cardigan. This mildly comical element is reinforced by advertising signs in the background—one directly above the figure is recognizable as the logo for Old Dutch Cleanser, with another sign nearby depicting a pair of pants.

Roadway No. 369 exemplifies how a photo taken for administrative purposes can slip into the uncanny. The camera eye looks straight ahead from a position only a few inches above a perfectly smooth and level sidewalk. The identities of the two truncated figures standing to either edge of the frame might be guessed from their clothing—one on the right could be a City official while the one opposite could be a foreman. But the barely visible figure sitting in the mysterious vehicle in the near distance remains enigmatic.