An introduction
I would never have thought that a bit of black and blue paint on a bricked up window would lead me to a brand new pastime but that is exactly what has happened. Of course it wasn't just any old tag I had spotted on the wall, this was the work of Banksy, this was something special. This was something that needed to be recorded incase an over zealous council worker get a bit too familiar with brick cleaner. Out came the camera phone, my trusty Samsung E350e *, and after a few poorly framed snaps I found a shot I was happy enough to commit to the phone's memory. Pleased with myself, I continued my journey and went through the rest of a mundane day.
Fast forward to two days later and I'm walking down a road very close to where I had spotted the piece on the bricked up window and, quite by suprise, I was greeted by a strange figure seated at a coffee table. Maybe that's not so odd, there are plenty of strange people in London and the law of averages dictates that at least one of them likes to sit at a table. I'm willing to bet, however, that most of these people aren't painted onto the shutter of a shop. I had just found my second Banksy piece and after a picture was taken I was on my way again. Now with the formations of a master plan swirling around my grey matter.
Upon returning home several hours later I decided that a little research was in order. I knew that Banksy had done alot of 'work' on the South Bank and in the City but I was unsure of how far around London his work was located. Through my foraging of the internet undergrowth I happened upon this page showing the locations of many of Banksy's pieces around london in handy map form. Noticing that a few of the locations could be easily reached with a little tweaking of my regular journey, I made plans to go see them first hand and to take a picture of each to add to my collection of two.
It was at this moment the individual thoughts of the 'master plan' that had been swirling decided to crash into each other and finally form themselves as a true idea. I wasn't going to settle with just the pieces on my normal route, I would start to go out further and further until I had bloody loads of pictures saved. How many pictures constitutes 'bloody loads' I've yet to work out but it'd be safe to assume that I'm aiming for more than one and less than a thousand. This master plan, by it's very nature, won't keep me off of the streets and I've yet to find an activity that will keep me out of mischief but I'll be out in the open air and that's bound to be a good thing. Sure it may not be the most conventional of pastimes but for the moment it's the most interesting one I can think to carry out. So I shall continue until I reach my target of 'bloody loads' or get knocked over by a black cab. Which ever comes first.
It has just come to my attention that you might be wondering why you are reading this. Or rather, why I have written all of this down. Well, reader of mine, there are many reasons for why I'm writing this up as a blog. Firstly, there is little point in going ahead with the master plan if I have no one to show the fruit of my labours off too. Secondly, I wanted to make have a dedicated blog for this rather than lump it in along with the general day to day stuff of other blogs/journals I update. Thirdly, it was suggested to me, and it was a damn fifne suggestion.
Well now all of the introduction is out of the way we can get to the fun bit of posting pictures...in my next post.
Cheers for reading this far (if you have), pictures coming soon (i.e. tonight or tomorrow morning)
* I gave that special mention in the hope that one day this blog will become well known and Samsung will send me loads of freebies, it's a long shot but it could happen. By the way Samsung, if today is the future and you are reading this unsure whether to offer me free stuff or not, will mentioning that I have a Samsung monitor knocking about somewhere sweeten the deal? Let me know.
Fast forward to two days later and I'm walking down a road very close to where I had spotted the piece on the bricked up window and, quite by suprise, I was greeted by a strange figure seated at a coffee table. Maybe that's not so odd, there are plenty of strange people in London and the law of averages dictates that at least one of them likes to sit at a table. I'm willing to bet, however, that most of these people aren't painted onto the shutter of a shop. I had just found my second Banksy piece and after a picture was taken I was on my way again. Now with the formations of a master plan swirling around my grey matter.
Upon returning home several hours later I decided that a little research was in order. I knew that Banksy had done alot of 'work' on the South Bank and in the City but I was unsure of how far around London his work was located. Through my foraging of the internet undergrowth I happened upon this page showing the locations of many of Banksy's pieces around london in handy map form. Noticing that a few of the locations could be easily reached with a little tweaking of my regular journey, I made plans to go see them first hand and to take a picture of each to add to my collection of two.
It was at this moment the individual thoughts of the 'master plan' that had been swirling decided to crash into each other and finally form themselves as a true idea. I wasn't going to settle with just the pieces on my normal route, I would start to go out further and further until I had bloody loads of pictures saved. How many pictures constitutes 'bloody loads' I've yet to work out but it'd be safe to assume that I'm aiming for more than one and less than a thousand. This master plan, by it's very nature, won't keep me off of the streets and I've yet to find an activity that will keep me out of mischief but I'll be out in the open air and that's bound to be a good thing. Sure it may not be the most conventional of pastimes but for the moment it's the most interesting one I can think to carry out. So I shall continue until I reach my target of 'bloody loads' or get knocked over by a black cab. Which ever comes first.
It has just come to my attention that you might be wondering why you are reading this. Or rather, why I have written all of this down. Well, reader of mine, there are many reasons for why I'm writing this up as a blog. Firstly, there is little point in going ahead with the master plan if I have no one to show the fruit of my labours off too. Secondly, I wanted to make have a dedicated blog for this rather than lump it in along with the general day to day stuff of other blogs/journals I update. Thirdly, it was suggested to me, and it was a damn fifne suggestion.
Well now all of the introduction is out of the way we can get to the fun bit of posting pictures...in my next post.
Cheers for reading this far (if you have), pictures coming soon (i.e. tonight or tomorrow morning)
* I gave that special mention in the hope that one day this blog will become well known and Samsung will send me loads of freebies, it's a long shot but it could happen. By the way Samsung, if today is the future and you are reading this unsure whether to offer me free stuff or not, will mentioning that I have a Samsung monitor knocking about somewhere sweeten the deal? Let me know.
posted by @MrStearn at 4:54 pm
1 Comments:
I just recently found your blog, searching for something about Clerkenwell... I love the photo's. But then I noticed that was... over three years ago. Did you stop? And if you don't mind, why? I think it is awesome.
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