I can't remember who said the above but it had enough of an impact on me that I wrote it down. I've been working on an analog project for a while now. A few blogs back you will remember that I wrote about the declining mall culture. Retail divorced the mall and eloped with the internet
I've been documenting a lot of skeletal remains of the dying analog world. There is an old red brick building on a fairly busy street that I shot on Friday with dusty windows, and a peeling white Income Tax Service sign. I wondered at the age, and for whatever reason, the number thirty popped into my head. The Lomochrome purple film added a touch of goth to the image.
John K. King Used & Rare Books is four stories high (you are offered a map upon entering; how cool is that?) and packed to the brim with books and nostalgia. I'm in awe of this bookstore because one, it's amazing and everyone should visit it at least once. Two, it continues to thrive in spite of the internet and changing retail patterns, and three, if you've been reading the news books have become political folly.
I always buy books when I visit John K. King. On my last visit it was a book on Snowdan this trip it was a real find Lisa Law's Flashing on The Sixties and it was signed. Detroit now have intense mini thunderstorms; climate change, so I shopped and pulled up a milk crate, and read until it was over. When I went downstairs to pay for my books the lady who cashed me out asked if I was avoiding the rain. I didn't confess that I had been there an hour before.
As a creative when I enter this mammoth bookstore I see a dream that survived in spite of the odds, competition, and time and I'm inspired by this. Pre-Covid I didn't put too much thought into time, and how it passes. We always hear that time passes so quickly. I think that time just passes, and when we pump the break, and raise our heads out of everyday life, it's usually at the news of the death of a notable, to acknowledge it or not.
Sinead O'Connor died on Thursday and I was reminded of the stunningly beautiful bald woman with an amazing voice who spoke her truth. I'm usually behind with music (I just found Lana Del Rey) because I'm more of a movie and book nerd. Time and the awareness of it's passage is important. I won't leave you with a cliché, I'll just say live your truth. Click to view larger; galleries and slide shows are cropped.
The windows are so lovely in these!