I love old secondhand bookshops. Well, I used to love them when people actually went into them and browsed for hidden gems. It seems that now people want new and shiny and untouched. I find this quite sad to be honest. Everything I grew up with and enjoyed is being replaced with facades and fakery.
Don’t get me wrong. I like change. I like new things. I like technology. But not to the detriment of everything that once had value. I used to go to these places because I couldn’t afford brand new books. And because of them I had hundreds of them on my shelves. Reading books on a phone is just not the same. And no-one will ever convince me that it is.
Bookshop Blues is my tribute to the old days and the hours I spent in places like this.
What I wrote about this particular shot
The problem with photographing things in downtown Athens is people. I’ve seen this bookshop hundreds of times, always with masses of tourists bustling past.
This day I had been out photowalking as usual and taken hardly any pictures. I thought I wasn’t in the mood.
I was on my way home when I saw the bookshop, in all it’s shabby glory with no people to change the story.
I edited it in black and white as it gives it the nostalgic feeling I was looking for.
I love the details, including the paper sign on the left. I’ll leave it to you to have a closer look.
If you would like to collect Bookshop Blues, it is available as an open edition on objkt.
