Photography feeds on randomness. It flourishes in unfamiliar places and indeed almost longs for them. It knows the thrill of discovering the extraordinary and the joy of finding the 'extra' in the ordinary.
Often times I find myself in my friends' cars, cruising along a stretch of highway flanked by the most captivating and irreproducible of scenes. It could be a splendid sunset, sinking into the horizon, a vista of rolling green fields under the brilliant sun, or an amber-lit street in the dark depths of a rainy night.
More often than not however, it's a kaleidoscopic clash of tropical colours, texts, and textures that make up Trinidad's dense, humid, filthy urban jungle.
Where there are people, there is struggle. Survival requires complex relationships, and these justify a maze of main roads, clamoring improvisational architecture, and colourful displays signaling nourishment, sexuality, service, commercialism, technology, nationalism and religion.
The language and aesthetics involved can be spectacular. Signage can be as nonsensical as Asian "Engrish" or as inventive as science fiction. Here's a look back at some of the gems of Sign Quest 2010, a documentation of these bright, bizarre, and most importantly, genuine, creations.
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| Ladies & Children... so basically just not Men... |
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| DENTIST DENTIST. |
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| Dr. Cool... like Mr. Freeze... but not. |
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| WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN |
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| GEMINI BASH!!!!!! |
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| This is not PC at all... |
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| Yes, this is a Pharaoh... making burgers. |
it's classic really. the hilarity and seeming "coherent confusion" of some of these signs truly reflect the way we speak on a normal day or rather, how even though there is coherent confusion we still understand where we're going and how to find where we're going.
ReplyDeletekeep it up.