Here’s something I’ve never seen before: a snowmobile parked in front of Toronto’s Louis Vuitton flagship store. I include this image as a companion to the snowmobile image I posted earlier in the month as part of my “Winter Scenes” series. This snowmobile sat on a flatbed trailer hitched to a pickup truck that was (obviously) not from the city but had come into town to support Truckers in their so-called Freedom Convoy protesting vaccine mandates.
Typically, when we see photos that place something (e.g. a homeless person’s tent) against the backdrop of a high-rent retail shopping district, we tend to interpret the contrast as some form of social commentary. Wealth vs. poverty. Indifference vs. need. Style vs. substance. However, given the context of this shot, I’m not sure the usual interpretations apply.
What I see here may not be a contrast at all, just two different manifestations of the same tendency. This scene reminds me of my favourite book, or what was my favourite book until the age of five: Mushmouse and Punkin’ Puss, the tale of a city mouse who visits his more practical country cousin where he learns a thing or two about how to manage an aggressive cat. While the mice are very different, they find renewed kinship where cats are concerned. While a purveyor of haute couture may seem very different from a snowmobile owner, at least in this instance we can see how their interests might be aligned.
As I see it, this image is not a commentary of the style vs. substance variety. It shows us one style against the backdrop of another style. I don’t see anything of substance here. All I see are two different expressions of entitlement, one urban, the other rural, but cousins all the same.
