About

Toilography
noun
– Appreciation of the restroom through the viewfinder

Hi! My name is Dan and I find great amusement in taking photos of toilets.

Some people think this makes me weird, but I assure you I’m (mostly) normal – I just happen to find them very photogenic.

It all started a few years ago when I lived in London. Occasionally at work my friend Rhiannon would browse through interior design websites during her lunch break, searching for unique bathroom ideas. She was particularly interested in the toilets, which I found to be quite humorous, to the point where I later bought her the book, Toilets Of The World, as a joke for her birthday.

Back in Australia a year later, I went on a weeklong road trip around North Queensland. My mum had just given me a digital SLR and I decided to practice using it not by taking typical touristy photos, but instead by capturing as many unique toilets as I could find along the way. It was a surprisingly fun experiment.

In late 2011 I discovered Instagram. The first thing that struck me about Instragram was how anyone could post a blurry picture of any random piece of junk, whack a filter onto it and get hundreds of likes from their friends. I set myself the challenge to see how many photos of toilets it would take before somebody liked one. It only took me one post.

I’ve continued to photograph toilets ever since then. Most of today’s loos are snapped around Montreal or Toronto in Canada (where I currently live), but there are plenty in the archive from my previous stint in Sydney and throughout my travels across Australia and around the world. The whole experience has left me with a newfound respect for the restroom. I can pretty much find something unique in every bathroom I enter now, such as an interesting colour scheme, feature, or sign on the wall. I coined the term toilography and created this blog to share my findings with anyone else who might be interested.

One thing I’d like to point out is that Toilography is (fairly) wholesome and the pictures here will remain within the realm of decent taste. I mean, you’re gonna get the odd vulgarity in the form of graffiti – if I see an interesting quote or piece of artwork on the wall, I won’t be afraid to document it – but I certainly don’t shoot the waste product that goes into the toilet. At the end of the day, this little project is a light-hearted celebration of the many unique characteristics of the commode.

I encourage you to look at the lavatory with new eyes. Get out your smartphone and snap away at any WC you pass that offers a particular point of interest. Then post it to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr, tag it with #toilography and you might be surprised at how many people like it.

If you appreciate this concept, I’d be delighted if you could follow Toilography either via this blog or at Instagram and leave a comment on one or more of the pics.

Thank you, and happy toilography!

Dan

The happy Toilography logo was brought to you by Tatiana K!

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