CHANFLES!

Every once in awhile I like to take a cruise around different parts of LH just to see que pasa, see what’s coming up, what went down, what needs to be paid attention. I bring my camera along as I always find a few things that catch my eye, usually something small and insignificant that nonetheless gives me pleasure from the very act of noticing. Mostly those things I notice have to do with some amount of human interjection into the landscape, a visual element that tells you in no uncertain terms that this was made by somebody and not pushed down by the corporate focus group. Usually its a chaotic mix of signs, objects, or general randomness but always it hints at a sense of living, a statement by a breathing individual. If you’ve ever traveled thru a suburb, or found yourself stuck in one, you might already be familiar with the polar opposite: the uniform but pristine landscape where all elements have been designed by committee and are thus rendered safe and appropriate. It’s a symmetrical terrain with a coordinated color scheme: pleasing to certain eyes but devoid of any of the wildness that still beckons to the human species. Anything that challenges that encroaching homogenization, I consider worthy of note!

These following pics don’t portend any special meaning, just stuff I captured during a day of seeing Lincoln Heights. For example, the hand painted sign above in front of a liquor store, it just reads “Flowers sold here”, very basic. But I appreciate how a sign that should read ” Se Venden Flores Aqui” gets altered by a healthy disinterest in the rules of language into “Seven Denflo Resaqui.”

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