Top: Georges in George St (shope < 25 years old)
Left: Gipps St, Paddington in 2000 (not my image)
Right; Gipps St, Paddington in 2010 |
Discovering faded signage is one of the delights of being an urban scavenger. Knowing that new signage is being bedded down for future scavengers is heartening. What to do, though, about signage where the fading is bordering on terminal. Should they be "touched up" or should they be encased in perspex?
Below left: sign on the Supreme Court, Elizabeth St entrance
Below right: sign covered in perspex within grounds of Sydney Hospital, Macquarie St
Bottom: another sign within Sydney Hospital, which has been touched up and touched down! |
18 comments:
These are fun to look at. You captured them so well.
I love these captures Julie. Very evocative.
I'm not sure about the best way to preserve them, but I hope it gets done somehow. They are so interesting to see!
Signs, old or new seem so evocative. At least you've made them seem so here. Love these!
Love your post, Julie and, as always, your way with words. You have inspired me yet again. This time in being sure to capture the many "tattered bookmarks" around town before they are lost.
Beautiful series!
I'm inspired!
Excellent shots. I love seeing the remnants of the past. You do a great job of preserving them in pictures.
This is an interesting series. Like the way you present it.
Well, what you're doing with your camera is preserving them beautifully. You could do an entire show on this theme, Julie.
I enjoy the faded signage too and have posted a few from the old part of downtown Tulsa. I'm not sure how I feel about preserving them. I think maybe the best way is through pictures. They were new once, and what replaces them will be old some day.
These are fascinating. Always enjoy seeing these historic artefacts.
Sydney - City and Suburbs
Another set of signs I must have walked past, some often, and never noticed.
I took one look at Oxford Street on Saturday and decided to stay in Hyde Park and hope a few interesting people came by. Couldn't believe how crowded it was and more and more people kept pouring onto Whitlam Square and Oxford Street.
Yes, incredibly crowded. I lost my footing at one stage and smashed into a sandstone wall. Took the wind out of me and I walked along Burton until I regrouped. Gone are the days when I used to stand there all night on two milk crates on top of each other!!
Great photos...sad as it is to see old signs fade away, imagine the chaos if all were preserved!
You raise an interesting question. I was in Portland the other day and saw an attractive old sign that looked touched up and I thought no that doesn't look as good as a worn sign. Then I saw another and another. I suspect that they are modern murals of old signs.
I think I agree. I know just from the one in Gipps St around the corner that I have included in the post, that very soon they will be gone. But that happens ... Tarting them up is sad. Like trying to hold on to youth. Rather, make signs that are pertinent to the now - to the today - and keep the concept of tattered bookmarks moving on into other eras.
I have more for another post in about another ten days or so.
As always, perfect photos! You got me thinking and I can't remember whether I have ever seen an air vent (which doesn't include A/C) on buildings here...
These are so fascinating. We see the same sort of thing in Europe - perhaps worn out lettering saying 'boulangerie' - a ghostly memory of what the building once was.
These are something that should be preserved in photographs as you have done.
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