Leggo and model train inspire great photos

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Carmel Kilkenny spoke with Jeff Friesen in mid-December, 2013

Leggo and model trains were two of the toys Santa Claus was often asked to deliver at Christmas.  And while they may have been replaced these days with video games, or whatever the latest electronic gadget might be, the lo-tech toys still provide a lot of fun and creativity to children and adults alike.

Leggo induces some sort of nostalgia in people

Jeff Friesen said it was taking care of his young daughter during the recent summers that provided him the opportunity to play with the little bricks again.  And being a photographer, he and his daughter captured their creations for posterity.  And then he got inspired!

The series of photos began with an amusing Leggo Manitoba, an hommage to his home-province, but he took on the rest of Canada’s provinces and territories, and then went on to create images for the 51 United States.  Some have been big hits! The east-coast province of Newfoundland had theirs up on their tourism website for several days.  Jeff Friesen says “leggo induces some sort of nostalgia in people.”  It’s a powerful nostalgia, as a small article on his Leggo series in one of our national newspapers had him fielding calls and requests for weeks after.

His model train series of photos, called ‘Ghost Train Crossing Canada‘ he envisioned as his great Canadian project. But was initially surprised to find the photos were going viral and selling quickly in Britain, Germany and Switzerland.

If I didn’t have a daughter I don’t know if any of this toy stuff would have happened

His wife’s sabbatical leave took the family to Barcelona last year.  While there, Friesen took the opportunity to photograph the architecture, and by blending images, ‘Silent City‘, another series was born.  The multi-award-winning photographer will continue adding to the ‘Silent City‘ seires, and has plans to take the train out again to capture it in some winter-scapes.