SOFA SO GOOD, TORONTO
‘The couch can tell you a lot about the person,’ photographer says
Adam Coish has set out to photograph Torontonians on their couches. This photo of a couple and their four-legged friends sharing a sectional is titled “Sarah, Keith, Danforth, Guinness & Monty.” Story and more photos,
There’s a couple sitting on a dark blue couch, tight-lipped and looking straight ahead as their three giant dogs chill alongside them.
A man sitting on a black leather couch, his feet resting on a shaggy green mat, a cat standing beside him and two guitars flanking him on either side.
A woman wearing a black dress, sitting on a wooden sofa next to her dog in a dimly lit room with red walls, carpet, statues and pillows.
“The couch can tell you a lot about the person,” says photographer Adam Coish, who has embarked on a project to photograph Torontonians on their couches.
Dubbed The Couch Series, he has photographed more than 60 sofas so far.
“This is one piece of furniture that we all have in our house and it kind of brings everybody together, but then everybody has different artwork and different knick-knacks surrounding it.”
Coish, who works as a freelance photographer and lighting technician, believes he was sitting on his couch when the idea of showcasing people on their sofas came to him.
It was about six years ago and Coish, then in his final year of photography at Ryerson’s Chang School of Continuing Studies, needed a subject for his final school project. Already having a keen interest in environmental portraiture and photographing “real-life” people — not models or superstars — he figured a simple series on ordinary people on their couches “could be fun.”
Initially, finding people to feature was a hassle, he said, mainly because people tend to be protective of their private spaces. But eventually, through word of mouth and postings in online platforms such as Craigslist and Bunz Facebook groups, Coish said the response has been overwhelming.
He ended up taking 10 couch portraits for his school project. He said the process made him realize he was “only scratching the surface” of what could be discovered through the series, given Toronto’s different cultures and walks of life. “It was also something I enjoyed doing,” he said. “I love the experience of going into these people’s houses where they feel most comfortable and some of them show so much pride in it. But, generally, people are so kind and welcoming and super interesting.”
He has since visited dozens of houses, apartments and basements across the city, taking pictures of people relaxing in their sofas and chronicling them on his website.
“One thing I’ve learned is that my space is very boring,” he said, noting many of his subjects had much more interesting things in their living places — from pets or little book libraries to cultural ornaments or artistic decorations.
“One other thing I never realized is how much you can fill up your space and make it feel very homey by finding things on the curb or just through trading things online,” he said, explaining some of his subjects found distinctive tables, lamps and carpets for free.
Despite its name, Coish said the couches are not the most important part of the series — rather, it’s the space and things surrounding the couch that tell more about the person’s personality.
One particular family stood out for him: a couple in the Dufferin Grove area who have curated a taxidermy in their living room — dozens of stuffed animals including a moose, a bald eagle and an elk. He said the couple weren’t hunters; they had been collecting the stuffed animals over many years from places across the country.
Coish said his long-term goal is to create a more diverse collection of portraits, with an emphasis on people from different cultural backgrounds, as well as older people, nuns, firefighters and others. He said he hopes to organize a gallery show by 2020, and eventually turn the project into a coffee-table book.
“I have no intention of stopping this project,” he said.