A few weeks ago, as I was standing in downtown Seattle waiting for my bus to work, I started looking around at all the logos, advertising, and slogans plastered all over the city. From the sides of delivery vans to shop windows, from faded paint on old brick buildings to garish posters hurriedly tacked onto construction barriers, advertising was everywhere.
Suddenly, I started wondering what the city would look like if all of those logos were removed.
And the word “PROJECT” flashed before my eyes…
My goal at that point was to wander through the city, taking random pictures, then come home, take them into Photoshop, and remove every logo, every piece of identifiable advertising, leaving only the “empty” buildings, automobiles, and walls. It seemed like a really interesting idea.
Then two things happened.
First, and most importantly, I lost my camera. Kind of makes it difficult to work on a photography project.
Secondly — someone else beat me to the idea.
The Untitled Project is a series of photographs of urban settings accompanied by a graphical text layout. The photographs have been digitally stripped of all traces of textual information. The text pieces show the removed text in the approximate location and font as it was found in the photograph.
Well, damn. Even if I didn’t get my chance to do it, and even if it’s a slightly different take on the idea, it’s a fascinating look at an ad-free (or at least text-free) world.
(via Kottke)
iTunes: “God is an Astronaut (Hot Tracks)” by Blunt Funkers from the album Roadkill! 2.13 (1995, 6:06).