Tell us about your House Portraits: As an architecture lover, I was naturally drawn to the character of the houses in the area. Each house has its own personality and I find everyone relates to one house or another for some reason. My theory is we’re drawn to the parts of architecture and design which reflect some part of ourselves. I’m fascinated by that and so it wasn’t long before I started taking pictures of houses in the area. I’ve now photographed hundreds of houses in this city and others I’ve traveled to, including San Francisco and Munich.

Place You Live: I live in an area of Toronto called Deer Park.

Can you sum up Toronto? Deer Park in Toronto is an interesting area in that it really developed in the 60’s. During that time, dozens of high-end Mad Men-like condos were built, surrounding these great century homes that already existed. Geographically, it lies in a sort of transition space between downtown and uptown, and so you get a great cross-section of folks in the area ranging from business, the arts, and youth as they make their way across the city each day. During the week, the hustle and bustle is on and I love that part. What’s really nice, though, is that the weekends get very quiet. With tree-lined streets and a ton of public green space, it’s my favourite area to be with a cup of coffee on a weekend in the summer.

For the visitor: If you’re visiting Toronto, here’s the list of things you absolutely must do:

1. Walk through Deer Park and Forest Hill to take in the beautiful architecture of hundred year old homes, schools, and churches

2. Catch a ferry ride over to Toronto Island for the day to enjoy the water and look back on the incredible skyline during sunset

3. Ride a bike out to the Beaches and stop at one of the hundreds of little cafes and bakeries along the way with your favourite book

Best Meal in the City: Head down to St. Lawrence Market on a Sunday and gather what you’ll need for a great Kinfolk-style dinner party that evening. You’ll find amazing, fresh local foods you can’t find anywhere else. If you’re looking for a place to dine, Pizzeria Libretto on Ossington Street is the best dinner spot in the city.

How long have you been using Instagram? I was an Android user for the longest time, and joined as soon as Instagram was available on that platform. That was in April of 2012.

Phone Camera Now? I switched to an iPhone 5 recently.

What is your Instagram editing process? Editing Process: I’ve tried them all, but I am a big fan of VSCO Cam and Afterglow App. Some of the work they’re doing to bring the aesthetic of film to mobile and digital photography is very impressive.

Do you create images outside Instagram? Absolutely, I’ve been an avid photographer for several years and recently have published several pieces and exhibited in shows & galleries.

Instagram has helped me to celebrate and embrace the candidness and everyday details we so often skip over in our daily routines. With my other cameras in hand, I now find myself having a greater appreciation for those ‘artifacts’, as I call them, and it’s greatly impacted my ability to tell a story through a set of images. A photo exhibit I have showing until the end of this month, for Scotiabank’s CONTACT Photography Festival, will be the first time I really show that side of things. I did a lot of scouting for it with my iphone.

Who are your three favorite Instagrammers: Cramer Peterson! Seriously, though, his enthusiasm and ability to build community around the #houseportrait tag should be an inspiration for other instragrammers. That’s the real beauty of platforms like Instagram, and he’s a shining example of that. Not to mention, his photographs really are out of this world.

Aside from houses, most of my work has a documentary or narrative undertone to it, and so I’ve really come to appreciate the work of Elizabeth Huey and Daniel Arnold.

kevinmorris.ca