Montreal Walls Project – Six – Not All Bricks Are Red

Somewhere around the 1970s, the building were getting surfaced with yellow bricks; not bright yellow, of course, which would have been spectacular to see, but these warm, beige bricks with a hint of yellow in them. While the grime of urban pollution could be easier to wash away from these bricks, it seems the graffiti ghosts stayed behind. I tweaking the gain and saturation I started seeing even more colours. Look closely and you can see the signs of mold and possibly moss (or some sort of algae) growing on the lower parts of the walls. Mother Nature finds her way of paining her touches of beauty on the walls, regardless of the original colour of the palette.

(Circa October 2019) – Back in the fall of 2019, when I was still attending classes in person and working in an office, as opposed to my Covid-free basement office, I started walking around the downtown core and noticing the subtle and beautiful effects of age on the walls of my city, Montreal. This coincided with my decision to read several books on Wabi-Sabi aesthetics and my continuously growing love for that aesthetic. The idea that beauty exists in imperfections is only the beginning of it. Time and the environment (pollution, weather, effects of humans, etc…) carve away at our attempts at perfections and paint their often simple touches to the urban landscape. These touches deliver more beauty than we normally notice, so I stopped to notice them and guess what I found? I looked at walls in the dry, bright sunshine, in the cloudy rain, and the conditions in between them. The best days to capture the effects seem to be shortly after the rain has fallen and the sun is peaking through the clouds.

Life got busier and busier and before I knew it, Covid made it less interesting to move around as much. Let’s be honest, there’s something very satisfying in taking pictures of walls when other people are around. I love the looks of curiosity and confusion I get when they see me standing around and taking pictures of what must seem like random walls.

Well, it’s Spring, Covid-restrictions are loosening a little and I’ll be heading out for more shooting soon (I hope).

I would love all your feelings, impressions, and observations one these images, so please share them here

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