Waiting... | Cynthia Waldow

Necessary Arts Collective
10 minutes ago
2 min read

Exhibiting August 25 - September 8, 2026

"I photographed these payphones with an eye toward the forgotten but still necessary. Over the years, I have watched some of the most interesting booths and hoods disappear—some overgrown by trees yet still working, others hidden behind a store's outdoor display, or simply gone. They are among the last of their kind.

Payphones are the neighbour you wave to occasionally but rarely stop to talk to, and sometimes forget altogether. Yet when you're locked out of your house in the middle of a snowstorm, they can still provide refuge. They are still valuable to someone.

As I photograph them, I find myself anthropomorphizing them. They feel neglected, overlooked, and quietly waiting as the world moves around them. They are hidden in plain sight, lingering at the edge of our consciousness. Yet for some people, they remain an essential means of connection.

Who gets to decide what is still useful or relevant?"

About the Artist

Cynthia Waldow is a Guelph-based, self-taught artist whose practice explores feminism, politics, memory and transformation through the lens of the everyday. Working primarily in acrylic and, more recently, photography, she reclaims overlooked objects and fragments of daily life, reframing them to invite observers to pause, look more closely and find meaning in the ordinary.

Drawing on a background in nursing, psychology, community arts and design, Waldow is interested in the emotional lives of familiar spaces and objects. Her work often explores themes of connection, loss, resilience and the hidden stories embedded in our shared environments.

Whether through painting or photography, her practice seeks to create moments of quiet reflection, encouraging viewers to reconsider what they have stopped noticing and to rediscover the extraordinary within the seemingly ordinary.

Website: https://theforkintheroad.ca

Featured Work

awkward, 2026

18” x 24”

Digital photograph on archival paper

$300

Blink and you’ll miss it, 2026

24” x 18”

Digital photograph on archival paper

$300

Camouflaged, 2026

24” x 36”