Special to The Ryersonian

'Angle of Incidence' shows Ryerson's engineering building from the corner of Gould and Church Streets. (Photo courtesy of Tanja-Tiziana Burdi)

For some students, graduating means finding a job in their field. For others, it means moving on to the next level of education,the next inspiration, the next adventure. That's what freelance photographer Tanja-Tiziana Burdi said it was for her.

After tackling four years of radio and television arts at Ryerson, Burdi, now 26, took on the city. The Toronto native goes about her days with coffee and a camera in tow, ready to capture the city at any moment of inspiration.

“I love it, stand by it, am interested in it, find it fascinating and am constantly amazed in my daily interactions with it,” she said. “I could photograph this city my whole life and never run out of subjects.”

Together, these inspirations form CIRCA: An Urban Retrospect, which launched last Saturday at Le Petit Dejeuner. This, Burdi’s first book, explores Toronto’s history through the photos and memories of a semi-fictional, anonymous narrator, who mirrors Burdi as she grows up in the city.

Presenting Toronto in this vintage style is often present in Burdi’s photographs. “I love bringing out the historic elements in seemingly ordinary city scenes,” she said.

But her fascination first began in a different city. While studying radio and television arts at Ryerson, Burdi got her first camera during a third-year radio internship with MTV Networks in New York. The big city became an outlet for her creativity as she documented her daily adventures with an online journal.

When Burdi returned to Toronto, she found her photographs were getting more praise than her production work. Encouraged by the interest, she immersed herself in photography and hasn't resurfaced since.

But Burdi hasn’t abandoned RTA completely. After graduating in 2004, she taught herself photography by fusing the art with video theory learned at Ryerson and inspiration from her electives.

“It never ever seemed like I was just casting my education aside for something different,” she said. “It all worked together to mould me into the artist I was then, and am now.”

As a native of the St. Clair West and Landsdowne area, Burdi does little shooting in her own neighbourhood. Instead, she tries to represent all of Toronto.

Occasionally, Burdi re-visits the Ryerson campus to capture its changing face. “I wish I'd taken more photos of the campus when I was (a student), because already a world of things have changed,” she said. “And that's the beauty of documenting the city – those images and an awareness of how it grows and changes."

But our campus isn’t the only thing that’s prospering. Having progressed from pursuing writing, journalism, radio and web authoring before she found photography, Burdi is trying not to look too far ahead.

“I take things as they come and let myself grow and change. If I'm a successful artist in the future, that's perfect,” she said, “and if the public enjoys the new book, well that's just a bonus.”

CIRCA’s accompanying photo exhibit runs until March 16 at Le Petit Dejeuner in Toronto. To check out Burdi’s daily adventures, visit her photo blog at DoubleCrossed.ca.