Press the button down and make it go away
Subversive, immersive,
Look up, look round,
On shutters, on brickwork,
On doors, on borrowed time,
Caving into paint, craving into acceptance,
Lost in translation, found in subtitles,
The streets are staring, staring…
Press the button down and make it go away
Aging gracefully, displayed distastefully,
Developing character, unveloping meaning,
Reinterpreted, reinvented,
Redrawn, retreating,
Reborn, rebirthing,
Battered unbeaten, bruised unburied,
The streets are wringing, wringing…
Press the button down and make it go away
Bittersweet, twisted mindfuck,
Understood, then out of luck,
Forlorn, and forgotten, lost in concrete,
A challenging stare, a limping gait,
Tattered and torn, then suddenly reborn,
Peeling, wrinkling, skin drooping,
The streets are fading, fading…
Press the button down and make it go away
Wind-blown, tan-sprayed,
Cosmetically enhanced, Botox-jabbed,
Collagen filled, lippy applied,
Harley Street hookers, working the streets,
Lurking round corners, plying their trade,
Busking for attention, drawing charity,
The streets are clawing, clawing….
Press the button down and make it go away
Evolving, dissolving, decaying with time,
Weather beaten, but unsubmitting,
Defaced, defiled, unremitting,
Tacked down, stripped down,
Pasted over, passed over,
Made to dress up, in strange clothes,
The streets are reaching, reaching…
Press the button down and make it go away
Nails unvarnished, legs unwaxed,
Developing character, losing sense,
A fine wine aging, a fine whine raging,
Glue hardens, attitudes soften,
Hard times, soft spots,
Transformed, transfixed, trafficked,
The streets are sniffing, sniffing…
Press the button down and make it go away
Embracing poles, cloaking walls,
Enveloping holes, evoking calls,
Ungreying the concrete that fronts us all,
A random beauty, forms of own accord,
Patterned ruins, flaking paint,
Spawning new life, spewing obscenities,
The streets are talking, talking…
Press the button down and make it go away
A coming of age, a growing disgrace,
Unrolled, unpasted, emptied of juice,
Curbside appeal, council repeal,
Streets uncloned, stores unchained,
Graffitied, gravitied and gratified,
Harsh strokes, ungentle moves,
The streets are wailing, wailing…
Press the button down and make it go away
Anesthetized to dullness,
Allergic to insipidness,
Tag and be tagged,
Publish and be damned,
Live by the sword, die by the can,
Draw the knife, slice the skin,
The streets are dripping, dripping…
Press the button down and make it go away
Discriminated and criminalized,
Misunderstood and mistaken,
All cut up, rain streaming down,
All shut up, all broken down,
Frost-bitten, sun-bleached,
Falsely accused, unfairly impeached,
The streets are disgracing, disgracing…
Press the button down and make it go away
Stenciled, styled, make-up applied,
Rusted, rouged, eyebrows removed,
Skin tattooed, in blood red ink,
Epilated, emaciated, ultimately emancipated,
Rejected and redeemed,
The crumbling façade, reveals depths unseen,
The streets are rising, rising…
Press the button down and make it go away
Random street-life in East London
Mannequins seem to feature prominently in this latest set of pics for some strange reason. Anyway this is a random assortment of street life mostly centred around Hackney in East London. There’s a lifetime’s worth of material on the streets around here. I was just reflecting today on the natural inclination to get trigger happy with your camera when on holiday in some far-flung destination. Why not in your own neighbourhood? It’s rather big-headed of us to claim that we “know” our local streets. I challenge you to take your camera with you next time you walk down to your local corner store or off-licence and take ten photos you would never normally take. Rubbish littering the street, peeling paint and grubby windows, store fronts that you’ve never seen from behind…oh and mannequins…I’ve been working hard on a photo project for an exhibition over the last 3 months in and around where I live. But I can safely say that I’ve probably derived just as much pleasure in putting together this random bunch of images on street-life…
