
London-based photographer Emily Webber has amassed a fascinating on-going portfolio of images of various shop fronts in London.
There is something so intriguing about these images, about the independent shops and businesses that are shown. So simple in concept, so layered under the surface. In a world which is dominated by big business and brands, the photographs seem to portray a dying world, a retro signed-existence that is too often forgotten or ignored. And like many urban photographical studies, it raises many questions about society. What does it tell us about our city life? What is the future for such a way of life? There’s chaos and grime, systematic of the city.
The collections are also a captivating look at various sign designs – graphics and typography, shop names from the random, to the ‘puntastic’, to the banal. From the american style to the classic italics. It’s like a life-size photoshop
font collection of the present and yet also the past.
Beautiful. Melancholic. Urban. Dying. And yet, somehow, very much alive.
Image by Emily Webber. The London Shop Fronts web site.