I thought that I would see if I could find door pictures today. When I first stepped outside, I wasn’t sure what that meant. I just knew that it was a beautiful day and that I would find an answer to my doorish quest. “Que sera sera” as Doris Day once sang.
Well, what is a door?
door: noun. A hinged, sliding, or revolving barrier at the entrance to a building, room, or vehicle, or in the framework of a cupboard.
doorway: noun. An entrance to a room or building through a door.
Well duh, I think most of us know what a door is, at least in the literal sense. As an image just a door on its own is often blah, B O R I N G. There are exceptions of course, but if that was all I was looking for today, I wouldn’t be taking many pictures.
I also think that most of us realize that “door” is so much more. We find them intriguing. Door metaphors abound. Open doors are opportunities and invitations, think “My door is always open”, or “When one door closes, another one opens”. Closed doors are mysteries, obstacles, or dead ends. We talk about not knowing what goes on behind closed doors.
below: Closed for good. No mystery here, just a dead end.
With a smile for being upside down.
A closing door has a slightly different imagery – “slam the door in his face”, or “show someone the door”, or “don’t let the door hit you on the way out”. Can you picture the scene in a movie where the hero walks into a strange room only to have the door close behind him. Can you see the look on his face when he hears it being locked from the other side?
Doors, and their cousins gates, are both entrances and exits. Entrances to buildings and rooms. Entrances to other worlds such as “at death’s door”. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture to illustrate ‘entrances to other worlds’.
below: But maybe this entranceway leads to something exotic? That’s a better explanation than ‘someone went to Home Depot and bought lots of cheap corrugated plastic’. It juts out like a sore thumb from an otherwise well maintained, nice looking house.
Doors are associated with privacy, protection, and control. We feel more secure when we lock our doors. Closed doors, especially locked ones, can keep things in or keep things out. Closed doors separate, open doors connect.
below: Waiting at the door. I can’t decide if he’s patient or impatient. Perhaps bored?
Back doors are private, hidden from view. The expression “through the back door” suggests sneaking around. Front doors are part of the face that we show the world. They can be welcoming or not, a lot like the people who live behind them.
below: Or they can just be a long way up. How are your knees feeling today?
below: A bright red chair brightens the picture. I wonder who usually sits there?
below: Another bit of cheerful red.
“There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.”
below: Another closed door waiting for demolition.
How many people have passed through those doors since 1913?
below: I’ve always been fascinated by the sign above this door.
below: This door seemed to be out of place on the Danforth… it’s an entrance to the apartment above, not to the hair salon on the left. I like to think that she keeps watch over the doorway.
below: These two doors (especially the green one) caught my eye as I walked along the Danforth. On my first pass I had the wrong lens on my camera. After changing lenses, I doubled back. Just as I was getting ready to take a picture of the two doors together, the one on the right opened. Dilemma – to shoot or not to shoot. I’m not brazen enough to shoot someone in the face so to speak; this over the shoulder and hope it works shot is only second rate (or third!). I only include here so I can briefly go off on a tangent and mention my #1 problem with door shots. People. Pointing my camera at someone’s house often makes me feel uncomfortable and I have no desire to have any kind of confrontation, even a friendly one.
below: What to do with leftover tiles.
below: A contrast in colours. The door is in the picture but it’s become just an element in the composition.
below: This is the last of the Danforth door photos that I took today. Again, the doors are just elements; the mailboxes provide the focus and the interest.
below: Doors are part of a building. What you can do with a door is often limited by the structure of the house.
Having said that, if you walk around the city there is a lot of variety. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go through all the permutations and combinations that I saw today! I’ll limit myself to a few (sometimes I can do that!).
below: A few stone steps lead to a simple white entrance.
below: A study in compare and contrast – the wonderful result of semis where next door neighbours with dissimilar tastes, habits, and decorating ideas share a common wall.
Many steps and many hours later I find myself nearing the end of this post. It’s been a bit of a ramble, both in the route that I walked today and in the thought processes that helped create this post. I hope that I have entertained you at least a little bit. And with one final photo I will close the door on this post. Last one out turns out the lights. Adios.
“Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” John Barrymore
as I walk Toronto 