There’s only one answer to the request: ‘Look at This’, and that is: ‘I’m Looking’. But what am I actually seeing. This is a boarded up Advertising site (Billboard or Hoarding) on Southbank that someone has painted blue, and now we have those three words ‘Look at This’ and the imprint of a hand added. Who added the words and the hand – the same person, or was it two different people? This is exactly how I saw this yesterday, apart from a slight crop to assist the composition.
Yesterday I walked across London from near the Oval Cricket Ground, through Kennington, to The Elephant and Castle, then round Waterloo, up to the Southbank, across the Thames, up through a maze of narrow streets to Covent Garden, then on past Central St Giles where Google has offices, and on to Bloomsbury, with a brief visit to the British Museum, and then eventually to the main line station at Euston to catch a train home. Quite a long walk – it took an hour and a half. I wandered with the camera, simply Snapping away at whatever caught my eye.
Now – look at this. What’s this?
It looks like a Montage, but it isn’t. I saw this from a distance while in Covent Garden. The closer I got the weirder it looked, which is why the image you see above has been cropped deliberately to make it appear to be a montage. 
But it’s actually a covered over building, undergoing renovation, and a visual imprint of the finished façade has been printed on the shroud. Just a little bizarre. To give you the context a shot from further away (unedited) is shown at right.
Finally I gazed in shop windows as I often do. I looked at these two mannequins, but they did not return my gaze. Eyes tightly shut; they see nothing.
Three disparate images, from a clutch of about sixty-five shot yesterday, loosely gathered around the idea of ‘Look at this’. Images are everywhere, ones that are tongue in cheek, the bizarre, and those that are evidence of the art of others.
Click on any image in this post to see a higher quality enlargement.
LensScaper 
Now this I do miss from London Andy. So much man made imagery to catch the eye, from architecture to advertising, demanding we look. That was quite a walk and you made good time despite stopping to shoot. An enjoyable post that highlights just what you can find if you do lift your head and look around you. I noticed that in the city, people tend to look downward, scurrying about their business. Not easy to catch someones eye and wish them a good morning. Perhaps it’s because there is so much to look at it becomes tiring or tiresome.
I mention the good morning thing because I met some Cornish friends last week and they uttered a very Cornish phrase that I hear often ‘I went to London once..’. This is usually followed by comments about people not saying good morning to each other or making eye contact and a whole host of other things I’m sure you can imagine. I’m on Cornwall time now and I think I’d find London quite a culture shock but I’m sure my shutter button would be clicking constantly, along with the Japanese tourists.
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I think so many people in London are in too much of a hurry – head down and rushing. They will burn themselves out. If you dawdle along, with no deadline to meet, and are inquisitive, then you will find things. If you walk with camera in hand, as I always try to do in London, it seems to be a stimulus to ‘Seeing’. For me, sadly, it’s ‘I went to Cornwall twice’. The first time was on Honeymoon in 1971 (we spent a week in Salcombe and moved on to ST Ives), the second time was abut four years ago when my son cycled from John o’Groats to Land’s End and we were there to celebrate the finish. It’s time we sent some more time down there.
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It’s amazing the things you see when you really look. Excellent images Andy.
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Many thanks, Edith.
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Nice way of looking at it. I enjoyed the post.
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Thanks Rob.
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A fine set of images, Andy. I especially like the cropped photo of the buildings. It takes a trained eye to pick this out and make something special of it.
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That building was really bizarre. I first saw it from about 200yds and thought how bizarre it was. Thanks for your comment, Ken.
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Thought provoking…and a challenge, too.
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Thanks Scott
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Thoroughly enjoyed this post, Andy. And I can well imagine the inspiration you enjoyed, taking a long walk with much photography as you looked around.
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It was a fun trip, Shimon. I often walk in London rather than use the Underground. But I’ve ever walked that particular distance. It was well worth the effort but I was glad to have some lunch at the end of it!
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Ohhh, I’m looking, too. Love that simplicity. Sounds like a wonderful walk!
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It was a very worthwhile walk, Linda. When you walk across central London as I did, you realise how relatively close everything is.
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That so does look like a montage Andy. Even when you said what you did, I still have to stare at it. Nicely done.
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Thanks Len. Yes – it is really quite an extraordinary sight.
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Nice shots Andy, but the building frontage is actually quite common these days; there’s one on Regent St which has a rainbow “ribbon” wraparound that goes in & out of the (painted on) windows, complete with shadows to give a 3-D effect – I’ll grab a shot next time I’m passing!
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I’ve seen some other ‘decorative’ covers previously, but nothing quite like this. Thanks for the info on Regent Street – didn’t quite make it there on m recent walk, but will take a look next time I’m down in that part of London
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