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LOOK

    by Nick Scammell

    LOOK by Nick Scammell

    I collected as many ‘LOOK’s from as many London streets
    as possible, and then chose the best to display side by side,
    as a series.

    As you can see from the final 15 images, the sign writers
    clearly have very little style guidance, and the wear and
    tear of shoes, wind, sun and water is uneven, to say the
    least. Some LOOK’s look like they were painted yesterday
    while others are barely there.

    It should be remembered that these are signs that we see
    every day yet hardly notice, even though they tell us to LOOK!
    And they certainly help save countless tourist lives, too.

    So this is my very literal approach to street photography,
    focusing on the actual street itself. In fact, this series was
    the inspiration for part of my book-length poem on London,
    London: Ghost Autopsy. The relevant section is below:

    LOOK by Nick Scammell
    LOOK by Nick Scammell

    XII (excerpt)


    Bringing us always back to
    The wet pavement
    The street itself, the surface
    The city’s uneven, dirty, broken face
    The slippery, pock-riddled skin
    The gum-spots and reflections
    The discounted, the discarded
    and the butts
    The grime and the filth
    The trodden in and on
    The scrapings and the dregs
    Here is where we are.I plan to continue this approach of marrying image-making
    with poetry for the London Villages Project.

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    LOOK by Nick Scammell
    LOOK by Nick Scammell

    Submitted on the theme of STREET LIFE, Spring 2011