Thursday, 20 October 2011
The Lost Picture Show
I stayed in an apartment opposite here last week. Britain is full of buildings like this: none of them cinemas any more but still thronged with the glamorous ghosts of the glory days of film. Redolent of the cigarettes from the time when everyone smoked, and wore hats, and went to the pictures.
These buildings are too big to demolish, so they sit in the midst of the old high streets - streets themselves that have been overtaken by retail parks and out of town stores and precincts. Mosques, bingo halls, gyms, or possibly nightclubs, they still serve as places where people go to have fun.
I've travelled widely in this country with my work, and most towns, even small, can muster a masterpiece like this - a Gaumont, a Roxy, a Ritzy. One day I would like to find the time to photograph these buildings. I'd like to capture them in a book, or perhaps a blog, with a photo and a piece of creative writing for each one.
I do not want to run out of time to do the things I promised myself I'd always do. And I need to reconcile myself to the fact that if I want to do these things, I must do them on my own otherwise I won't be doing them at all.
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