The grocery store at night - Part 3

Just another brick in the wall
London, ON
October 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The final entry in our east-end-supermarket-parking-lot series is up close and personal, an in-your-face angled perspective of the exterior brickwork.

My word choice makes it sound like a cherished heritage property, but the sad reality is somewhat less glamorous. For this is the corner of a run-down strip mall in a part of town often derisively called EOA, or East of Adelaide. A place whose commercial/industrial roots are never far from the surface.

There’s nothing fair about how EOA is perceived, but civic geography, here and anywhere, was never about fairness, anyway.

As I line up the shot, I brace my hand against the cool, textured bricks and imagine I must be the only person in, well, ever, to be doing this. Because no one takes the time to appreciate the supermarket, here or anywhere.

But maybe they should. Maybe we’ve all been looking for beauty, or inspiration, in the wrong place. Maybe our very definitions need to change.

Staring at the time-worn surface of an overlooked yet vital corner of this community, I decide we’ve been getting it wrong. As I walk back into the darkness, I realize I need to find more places like this to explore.

Hopefully I’ll see you, soon, in another eerily lit parking lot.

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