Kevin Steele

Street view of two storefronts. Left: Blue "Dentistry" sign is removed and faded, over an empty storefront with a FOR LEASE sign; right: Black "Love Shop" sign with heart. Mannequins in lingerie and a Canadian flag are in the window of the Love Shop. Two pairs of people walk past.

1478 & 146 Queen St W

2025.10.04

Street view of a building with "Family Dentistry on Queen" and "Lumicrest LED Lighting" signs. Flower baskets add colour.

1478 & 146 Queen St W

2016.07.11

Street view of a family dentistry clinic at dusk. A blue sign with a cartoon tooth hangs above large windows, revealing a person inside the warmly lit unmarked gallery space next door.

1478 & 146 Queen St W

2015.11.30

Facade of a vacant urban storefront with faded blue signage and large "For Lease" signs. A streetcar is partially visible on the right.

1478 & 146 Queen St W

2015.03.16

Street view of a 99¢ Zone Plus store with a snow-covered sidewalk. The entrance displays various colourful items, and a person stands near the doorway, a cigarette in hand.

1478 & 146 Queen St W

2011.02.05

Storefront with "99¢ Zone Plus" sign, featuring a Canadian maple leaf inside the O. A man in shorts walks past, with dresses and colourful items in the window.

Queen Street West near Lansdowne

1478 & 146 Queen St W, 2006-2025

2006.06.17

#documentaryphotography

Extremely wide panoramic photo collage, divided into four segments and stacked, depicting a series of urban street views with park area, a long mid-rise building, a small section of Victorian buildings, trees, power lines, and clear blue skies. This is the CAMH facility in Toronto.

South side of Queen from Shaw to Dovercourt, 2015

I've built the last segment of my complete record of Queen West in the summer of 2015.

It was a challenge keeping scale consistent and finding points along the plane at the back of the sidewalk to align to.

Now to put all 4.6km (x2) together.

Pape Avenue, Toronto, 2024
#photography
#toronto

I do, I do, but they're multiplying!

I've been receiving "I'm [name] from [recruiting company] and I have a job for you" text messages over five times a day, sometimes simultaneously.

I used to get these only a few times a week.

Is this normal? Has my number been put on a "Please harass" list, or has this scam gone viral?

The death of humankind will be the result of poor reading comprehension, autocorrect, or some unfortunate interaction of the two.

I achieved a new milestone.

Someone commented on one of my Instagram posts, "You suck. Click bait bullshit!"

In my 25 years of posting pictures of Queen West to the Internet, this is a first.

I'm sorry for all the controversial people who must put up with a rain of shit.

Oh my goodness. Wonderful books.

Join My Mailing List!

I know some folks have already disentangled from Meta and will never see those posts.

I'll continue to make Bluesky versions of some posts.

And I have a mailing list. I primarily send out emails for news beyond the internet — like a new book, poster or (hopefully soon) show.

My portraits_of_queen_west Instagram account recently got more viral. I'm gaining Toronto followers hourly & they're sharing anecdotes in the comments.

My record of Queen West has aged past a nostalgia tipping point.

For now, Instagram remains the first and best place to see POQW photos.

Street scene with brick storefronts, featuring a cannabis shop with a "Hollywood Hi" sign. Two pedestrians and a dog walk on the sidewalk. This is a T intersection and the traffic light is red.

Street view of Queen Street West with a "cannabis culture" shop named "Friendly Stranger." This is 2014 and cannabis is not yet legal — this is an old school head shop with everything but cannabis. Two bicycles are parked outside. Three pedestrians walk by. This is a T intersection and the traffic light is red.

Today on Portraits of Queen West

241 & 243 Queen St W

September 2025 & July 2014

#documentaryphotography

My arm hurts because it was rammed by the handlebars of a cyclist passing me as I walked ON THE SIDEWALK.

I hate being mad at a cyclist.

Street view of a row of buildings featuring a Vietnamese restaurant named "Saigon Flower." A hipster couple walk on the sidewalk with a bicycle nearby. The scene is sunny with a clear blue sky.

1138 Queen St W, April 2007

The Saigon Flower seemed like it would be here forever. It was there when I first moved to Queen and Abell in the late 80s.

I ate many meals there over the years. If you did, too, then you know that's not saying enough.

#documentaryphotography

Street scene with a closed storefront partially obscured by a tree. Orange traffic cones are scattered on the sidewalk. The window is covered in plastic, but a sign in the window still advertises "Saigon Flower Fusion." A pedestrian signal shows a red hand.

1138 Queen St W, September 30, 2025

R.I.P.

#documentaryphotography

I'm getting so tired of keeping track of how everything works, and constantly having to relearn things that I don't do often enough to remember.

I know some of that is me, but there's so much transient bullshit being created daily for us to wade through, and I'm not talking about art.

All the books are sold. What’s next? Two years ago, we were in the middle of the presale/crowdfunding for Portraits of Queen West: Spadina to Bathurst.

We made and sold 500 #photobooks. I want to make more and sell more.

Panoramic view of a city street, made up of a series of images, featuring historic buildings with diverse facades, trees, and cars. In the middle of the block is a five story brick condominium that has been built around a historic house that is set back from the side walk with a large lawn. It's a sunny day with a clear blue sky.

I found the source for this block in my “rejected” pile—too many cars, not enough shots. Those reasons don't matter now, so I built it.

Documentary value outweighs other concerns, now that I’m working on BATHURST TO STRACHAN.

Queen St West from Walnut to Strachan,
June 2007, Assembled 2025

Storefronts on an urban street, including "TIBET ARTS" and "ODD AND ENDS." A person with a dog stands outside the narrow junk shop, filled with shelves of trinkets.

Storefronts in an urban setting, featuring "Tibet Arts" with a pink sign and a blue window display, and "Odds and Ends" with a colourful wooden sign of different-sized letters at varying angles.

703 & 703A Queen St W, June 2010 & August 2024

Tibet Arts was a few years old in the first picture.

#documentaryphotography

A #cat I saw 10 years ago.
#photography
@hipstamatic.app

Storefront labeled "Royal" with blue and white signage, displaying washers and dryers outside. A sliver of the shopfront Nextdoor is visible, painted yellow on the first floor, green on the bit of the second floor we see.

Street scene with a wall covered in colourful posters advertising events and products. A Banksy show. Fan Expo. Deadpool & Wolverine. Ketchup & Mustard. “The Marchesa Casati” by Augustus Edwin John, a famous painting of a stunning redhead at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Old building facade with faded "Royal" sign.

1072 Queen St W, Sept 2009 & Aug 2024

This pair of pictures has a lot, including a kitchen sink.

#documentaryphotography

Dude, yeah, we got away from the unpredictable drunk with a swastika on his fridge and a key to our apartment.

We moved out of province over two months ago. I shook hands with our landlord, and upstairs neighbour, when we left our apartment.

Late last night my ex-landlord called me up drunk to harass me because he’s sure my brother and I got away with something.

Panoramic view of a complete city block showcasing a row of colourful, historic buildings with varied facades and multiple small shops at ground level. This is the same block as in the previous post. The picture is a collage of many separate overlapping images. There are no parked cars. It is winter, early evening. There is some snow piled at the curb but and the streets are wet with a light film of slush. It's a grey sky, light enough to see everything but dark enough that all the stores have their lights on.

Queen St W from Euclid Ave to Palmerston Ave, January 2011

[assembled 2020]

These are only two of the times I shot this whole block.

It's a fun block to shoot. Almost everything is near the storefront plane.

Panoramic view of a complete city block showcasing a row of colourful, historic buildings with varied facades and multiple small shops at ground level. The picture is a collage of six separate overlapping images. There are a few parked cars, but only a yellow sports car is complete as the other cars are all truncated, having fallen into the parallax valley.

Queen St W from Euclid Ave to Palmerston Ave, June 2007

[assembled 2022]

This block is part of the stretch of Queen being covered in the photobook I'm working on now.

#panorama