Back Alleys

Back alleys were hubs where kids gathered and played together. Sheltered from traffic, kids built their own fantasies in back lanes. Suburbia has no back alleys and less imagination. Michael Cho finds beauty in these forgotten city arteries with his collected illustrations. Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes is a celebration hidden treasures in cities such as Toronto and can easily found in many older cities throughout North America. Cho’s art like the alleys he captures are filled with hidden lined ink crevices of mystery to discover.

Michael Cho began creating drawings of the back alleys near his Toronto home in 2008. With this book, he has amassed a collection that speaks to the beauty of the urban landscape: sometimes grittily citified, sometimes unexpectedly pastoral, and always bewitching. Cho is a skilled draftsman, and Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes shines with lovingly rendered details, from expletive-filled graffiti splayed across backyard fences to the graceful twists of power lines over a bend in the road.

Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes meanders through the city, functioning as a sort of caught on-paper psychogeographical Jane’s Walk. With each season’s change, different color schemes become dominant, and a whole range of moods and moments are articulated. Cho lets the reader visit his city as a virtual flaneur, lingering equally over dilapidated sheds and well-groomed gardens in a dazzling tribute to the urban environs.