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| Light from the past London, ON October 2022 This photo originally shared on Instagram |
It probably seems like an odd photo choice. After all, it’s just a sign, right? One of countless such objects all begging for our attention in our cynical marketing-fuelled modern existence. Meaning it normally wouldn’t be worthy of a second look, let alone a first.
But I see neon through a different lens, because as a technology it is fast disappearing from our midst. In fact, look at streetscape pics from decades ago up against otherwise identical views of the same scenes today and one thing becomes immediately apparent: there’s almost no neon left.
Once upon a time, artists crafted ethereally twisted tubes that then splashed stunning pools of light across the typical urban street. When the sun went down, the neon hummed to life and turned once-ordinary stretches of brick, concrete, and asphalt into magical playgrounds where lifelong memories were made.
Today? Plastic covers fluorescent. Or LED screens play marketing content that looks stunningly similar to the stuff we fast-forward through at home. None of it is memorable, and those pools of light are more washed out than magical. If memories are made here, they aren’t particularly warm or gauzy, and our future history won’t love them as much as our current history loves neon.
Of course the new technology is more efficient. It’s probably cheaper - no one has to bend the glass into uniquely sculpted visions in script - and I’m guessing it’s easier to maintain, too.
In other words, better.
But in the world of light, better isn’t always better.
So we remember what once was when it winks at us from the shadowy corners of an increasingly dusty streetscape that no longer comes alive after the sun sets.
#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #neon #glass #wongsgarden #restaurant #light #night #urban #street #photography #architecture #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded
Related:
Blue neon at night, January 2020
Neon dreams, King and Talbot. November 2017
Thematic Photographic 374 - Lightbulbs, June 2016
They dream in neon, January 2012
Size does matter, August 2010
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