Out of Office features photos I took over the years on the east coast, in Toronto and in rural southwestern Ontario, where I grew up. I wanted to feature people out and about and relaxing, engaging in different forms of leisure. I like the end of summer—it’s not scorching hot, and the light is not as harsh and direct. There’s a bit of melancholy around that time of year, but there’s also a warmth. I wanted to capture the weather in my images: the colours in this collection shift between blues and warmer orange and yellow hues.

My day job is as the festival manager of Toronto’s CONTACT Photography Festival, so I’m steeped in images for most of the year. I remember attending a workshop where American photographer Jason Fulford talked about two types of photographers: according to him there are the collectors, who ...