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Toronto Photo Essay: The Power Grid

Posted by Jerrold Litwinenko / February 13, 2008

7 Comments

Jerrold Litwinenko power grid photo essayPhotographs and writing by blogTO contributor Jerrold Litwinenko.

I can't help but notice the trail of tall metal towers and wooden poles that, stringed together so systematically, distribute power across the suburbs and throughout the city. I notice them all the time, and when I pass through them in my car, they do strange things to Darryl Dahmer's voice while I'm trying to catch the latest traffic report on the radio. And strangely enough, I've developed an inexplicable appetite for photographing them.

Photo essay continues after the jump.

Not big enough? View as fullscreen slideshow.

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Toronto Photo Essays are visual, themed collections of photographs submitted by readers of blogTO and members of the blogTO Flickr Pool. We appreciate the interactive, collaborative nature of this column, and encourage readers to submit photo essays for future consideration.

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Danielle / February 13, 2008 at 10:15 pm
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Having grown up in Scarborough, I spent an inordinate amount of time walking through hydro fields to get around. The patterns in the metal do make for lovely imagery. Great shots Jerrold.
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Joe Howell / February 13, 2008 at 11:20 pm
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Great stuff, Jerrold. I love most of these, especially the third one with the lone walker in the snow. Nice to see them in photo essay format.
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jt / February 14, 2008 at 09:43 am
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they make a strange buzzing noise when you are underneath. WHat intrigues me is the immense amount of green space given to them, and created by them. No one wants to live under them or near them. Do they cause cancer?

We will all die of cancer anyway, so why not enjoy these "strip-parks".
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Ben / February 14, 2008 at 03:46 pm
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I am not sure if they cause cancer or not. I did see an interesting image once. It was a time exposure of fluorescent tubes stuck into the ground underneath a big set of these overhead wires, and there was enough of an electric field that you could see them glowing.

http://www.richardbox.com/
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Jerrold / February 14, 2008 at 04:09 pm
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Wow. That's an interesting project, Ben. Thanks for the link. I had no idea you could power fluorescent tubes by the magnetic fields the pylons generate.
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Kate / February 14, 2008 at 11:09 pm
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The slideshow says "no such photos found" for me. :(
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Jerrold / February 14, 2008 at 11:17 pm
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Hey Kate, try refreshing of clicking on the fullscreen link. I've seen that "no photos" error a few times, and can't figure out why it happens sporadically. Cheers!
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