i like the shot. i can't decide if i want the wall jutting into the picture on the right side gone or not. one side says distracting and one side say im tailing someone creeping around the corner watching them.
Thanks for replying, Wyjid
My original purpose in taking the photo was to capture as much of the "Metropole" sign on the sidewall above John's head as possible. The reason being I had just uploaded a photo of the
Eight Bells public house, which had once been a cinema with a "Metropole Hotel" on the floors above.
The 'writing on the wall', so to speak, is the only externally visible evidence that the Metropole Hotel and Bars ever existed and is located on the hotel's side entrance in New Street.
John Allister wasn't meant to be in the shot at all. Before he arrived I had already decided to include the wall on the right because New Street opens up further on and I wanted to take a claustrophobic photo reflecting the days when it was narrow all along its length.
(As an aside, when I was a child there were many such passages and alleys in Dover and I intend to eventually take photos of all those that remain.)
John came up beside me as I was fiddling with my camera and offered to wait until I had taken the shot. "You go ahead," I said, "I'll be a few moments yet".
Then, as he began walking down the alley, I was reminded of a UK advertising campaign for
Strand cigarettes:
This television advertisement depicted a dark, wet, deserted London street scene in which a rain coated character lit a cigarette and puffed reflectively. This was accompanied by an instrumental, "The Lonely Man Theme" and a voice-over declared "You're never alone with a Strand."
The commercial was popular with the public but sales of the brand were poor and it was soon taken off the market. The public associated smoking Strand cigarettes with being lonely and were put off from buying them. [Abridged]
I waited until John had reached the wall because, as the above article goes on to say:
It is regarded as one of the most disastrous tobacco advertising campaigns of all time.
I wanted to capture some of the ambivalence of "I like it, but I don't want it"
John Latter / Jorolat
