Ghost Signs
They display a city's past like the lines on a person's face. Years ago, this place that is now a restaurant was a harbour warehouse. The entrance where the glass doors stand used to be choked with carts. Men stood on top of them throwing down hessian sacks full of grain or rolling barrels down a trackway while clerks ran about scribbling notes in ledgers. When the sun was setting it cast the shadows of sailing ship masts against the painted walls. There used to be a laundry here. All that remains is the outline of a word, a shadow in the brickwork. Ghost signs are a building's oral history; offhand remarks that hides a lifetime of memories.
All of these were photographed in Montreal, which has been relatively good to its heritage. there have been tragic decisions to knock down beautiful buildings and replace them with ordinary ones, and people have had to fight through the courts to prevent developers from realizing their innocuous dreams. but it still a city you can walk through and read its past on the walls. For comparison, show a book of fred herzog's photos to someone from vancouver who remembers the years before redevelopment and watch the expression on their face as they remember a city that had personality. down in old montreal the ghost signs are proudly maintained. they are part of the building's fabric. Even so, in other parts some of these signs have disappeared since they were photographed less than a year ago. in the worst cases they have been defaced beyond recognition by graffiti. we can't blame it all on vandals. the weather plays it part. some of these were barely more than a few flecks of paint when I found them. Their demise was inevitable.
They display a city's past like the lines on a person's face. Years ago, this place that is now a restaurant was a harbour warehouse. The entrance where the glass doors stand used to be choked with carts. Men stood on top of them throwing down hessian sacks full of grain or rolling barrels down a trackway while clerks ran about scribbling notes in ledgers. When the sun was setting it cast the shadows of sailing ship masts against the painted walls. There used to be a laundry here. All that remains is the outline of a word, a shadow in the brickwork. Ghost signs are a building's oral history; offhand remarks that hides a lifetime of memories.
All of these were photographed in Montreal, which has been relatively good to its heritage. there have been tragic decisions to knock down beautiful buildings and replace them with ordinary ones, and people have had to fight through the courts to prevent developers from realizing their innocuous dreams. but it still a city you can walk through and read its past on the walls. For comparison, show a book of fred herzog's photos to someone from vancouver who remembers the years before redevelopment and watch the expression on their face as they remember a city that had personality. down in old montreal the ghost signs are proudly maintained. they are part of the building's fabric. Even so, in other parts some of these signs have disappeared since they were photographed less than a year ago. in the worst cases they have been defaced beyond recognition by graffiti. we can't blame it all on vandals. the weather plays it part. some of these were barely more than a few flecks of paint when I found them. Their demise was inevitable.
