Nathan

When we met Nathan he was sitting in front of a store on Yonge Street, a mere 30 metres across the road from the massive Eaton Centre, North America’s busiest mall with almost 50 million visitors a year—more than Disneyland and Walt Disney World combined. In stark contrast, Nathan appeared a lonely and forlorn figure.

When we met Nathan he was sitting in front of a store on Yonge Street, a mere 30 metres across the road from the massive Eaton Centre, North America’s busiest mall with almost 50 million visitors a year—more than Disneyland and Walt Disney World combined. In stark contrast, Nathan appeared a lonely and forlorn figure. As I stood and watched him, crowds of people filed past him, seemingly oblivious to his existence. Nathan has lived in Toronto all of his life—all 68 years of it. His mother, who is 85, also lives in Toronto, though his father died a long time ago. He has a sister who also lives in Toronto, though he has no contact with her. Nathan told us that he keeps to himself and doesn’t have a lot of friends—though whether this is by choice or not I do not know. When asked if the people he meets on the street are friendly to him, he replied with a simple, “No.” When the photo shoot was finished and my dad took out of his pocket a brand new $10 bill to give to Nathan—we pay all of our models—Nathan immediately began to protest, saying, “I want two fives. I don’t like it new money. I want two fives. I don’t like it new money.” Nathan, it seems, was worried that the money my dad tried to give him was counterfeit. It took my dad ten minutes to find a store that would make change for him.