MADE YOU LOOK

This sign is on probably one of, if not the, busiest streets in London.

Portobello Road.

Blissful on a weekday. Pure hell at the weekend.

But I always wonder how many people have actually seen this artwork. How many people actually look at it. It's just at the start of the road when you're coming from Notting Hill, quite high up over a flat bit of roof that houses a garage. 

The wall is red brick and the sign is black and white. Nothing massively eye catching, nothing too outrageous. And nothing compared to the psychedelic colours of much of the street art in the area.

But for some reason it always grabs me.

I decided long ago to try and notice the details of a place I'm in. I think it comes from being an obsessive photographer of everything around me. I never want to take the photo that has been captured before. Where's the fun in having a duplicate of someone else's work?!

My imagination is in a constant state of heightened excitement whenever I wander through London. (Although not really so much this week as the temperature drops below that at which I want to be simply wandering!)

There's always so much going on, so much to look at, so much to be shocked by/laugh at/stare at/be generally amazed by.

I've realised that the reason I love to write and to take photographs is because my brain is just one big, giant, fluffy sponge, absorbing everything around me for later use.

And I tell you what?! Apart from sometimes being unable to sleep, and always having to keep a pen and paper by my bed, I'm rather a fan of my sponge-like brain.

So next time your marching along the streets of your city, look up, look around you.

Be a sponge.

Make yourself look.

And be all the better for it.

Pic shot on Sony x55