June 2013 – COHN17

i will miss the signs in chennai. they were part of the intense visual detail that drew me to the walls project, but moreover, they’re revealing in their own right. while plenty of signs use indian models to advertise merchandise, cola, eyeglasses, etc., you still find some signs using blond, white models, and usually these models have absolutely nothing to do with the products being advertised.


as i noted in an earlier post, it’s nice to see someone get so excited over flame retardant p.v.c.-insulated wires and cables. (the company’s iso 9100 certified!)

i think the older signs are more useful. you might not know exactly what you want, but you’ll know whether the shop has it or not.


if anyone knows what the things in the second-row middle and right photographs are, let me know.

the transience of walls

one aspect of my abstract wall details project is that the walls change over time; that when i go back to them (as i have, to take additional photographs), i see that someone has added graffiti, the weather has distressed the paint even more, or – sometimes – someone has obliterated the image completely. sic transit gloria muri.

the original wall, circa march 2013

the artwork

the wall as of june 2013

going through old photos …

… i came across photos of the southern railways sports association 76th all-india railway men and women’s athletic championships, from 2011. one of my fellow “husbands of chennai” friends invited me along (he knew one of the competitors), so i brought my camera: when else do you get the chance to photograph sports close up? at the chennai tennis open, actually, but what the heck.

the romance of the railroads … the railways are a very big deal in india. indian railways is the largest railway system in the world with 115,000 km of track and 25 million passengers daily, as well as one of the world’s largest public employers with over 1.4 million employees. around chennai there are “colonies” (housing estates) for railway employees and railway manufacturing employees – many state bodies provide living quarters for their employees – so the idea that they have a sports association is not surprising.