Much as I love this city of mine, even I have to admit that some of it is a little on the gritty side.Today me and Scamp went for a walk to Hawthorn Ave, which is also called 'Little Beirut' on account of the mass fights which unaccountably break out over trival issues. Sometimes I have seen a load of police cars at the end of the street, sent there to break up the fight. Second pic you will see the barbed wire at the beginning of the street, which is apposite to the the street's nickname, but is actually put there by somebody to protect his property.
Somewhere near here is the shop I go to to buy the filters for my cyclone vacuum cleaner (they say it doesn't bags, which is true, but you spend a fortune on the filters) with the large wads of cash that are required. You can tell the blokes in baseball hats are up to no good as they hang around the phone booths, and I always get worried about the amount of money I am carrying. If you look closely at the first pic you will see someone has written 'Renton', who is the hero of 'Trainspotting',on the right, which just confirms me in my suspicions of what goes on in the area. Though whoever wrote that has, I feel, misinterpreted the message of the film, which was actually anti-drugs. But maybe film criticism isn't their strong point.
But, as always, there are people who make an effort to change their surroundings for the better.
There are people who put little glass and crystal displays in their window, and people who put train shapes in bricks on the side of their houses.
Actually taking pictures like this of streets like this is quite a patronising activity as I was reminded when I took a picture of a mural that somebody had painted in the local school. I was approached by a lady who asked what I was doing and I said I was taking pictures for a blog and she said that she worked at the school, and how everyone tried very hard to make it a nice environment for the kids and what a good school it was. I could tell she was looking at me to try and work out my motives for taking the picture but in the end she seemed satisfied. I think it may have been because I was wearing my scruffy trainers and anorak for dog walking and she probably thought I lived round there.
3 comments:
These are interesting pics, they show that life goes on in all sorts of places in all sorts of ways. Shame people are defensive, I bet you could take some really good pics of people in the urban environment, like that French photographer, wotsisname, or was he Italian or something else - forget it, I am barking. I can remember the pictures so clearly, black and white, but no idea who the photographer was!
http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase_view.php/74/1/1
Robert Doisneau that is the photographer
Thank you very much, Frances, for taking the time to find the link. Robert Doisneau seems to have taken frank pictures of Parisian street life,like I could do for Hull! He seems to have taken a lot of pictures of kids playing, and you certainly see a lot of kids larking about.
You certainly see some very interesting sights and people. However, I'm going to have to take care taking some of them, I don't want to get hit!
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