Advertising Windows

Another brief trip to London this week, which also happened to be School Half Term holiday week, so trains were filled with horribly noisy small children who hogged all the seats meaning the older members of society were obliged to stand. Also, this past week has been London Fashion Week: an important event in the year’s calendar.

On a quick walk down New Bond Street to a gallery exhibition I found a major retailer whose windows were entirely given over to advertising LFW. The dramatic graphics, either on the windows or as a backdrop to the window displays, intrigued me and I lined up a shot of one major window from the other side of the street waiting for a little foreground interest. A lady in a red coat kindly obliged.

It wasn’t until I was processing this image that I spotted the sunglasses on a mannequin (otherwise largely obscured) at the very centre of this display panel. I saw a creative possibility there and… I was off on one of my creative rummages through Photoshop’s toys.

A crop, a radical increase in contrast, levels adjustments and then Posterization and Solarization and something very different appeared on the screen. I liked what I saw and here it is.

It’s not an image that will appeal to everyone, but the point of showing it is that sometimes, in addition to the image you were primarily capturing, there is something altogether different lurking within that first image if you can only see it. Just suspend normal thought processes and think tangentially. Try something radical, and occasionally you will be rewarded by a bold new image. And remember, in the digital era one more image will cost you nothing but your time.

As always click on an image to see a higher quality enlargement.

Do let me know your thoughts on today’s image.