Thematic Photographic - Urban

Every week Carmi at Written, Inc. poses a theme for photographic inspiration. This week's theme is URBAN.

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This scene is on one of my favorite streets in the City of Los Angeles. This is Broadway - historic L.A.'s main drag. Broadway was where big downtown department stores were, and where the center of business, commerce, and entertainment was - back before Hollywood and the Miracle Mile became the scene. Broadway is now a bustling urban street, where more cash changes hand each day than on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills - only the transactions mostly happen in Spanish. It is still home to a dozen magnificent movie palaces - closed and concealed behind storefront merchants, awaiting restoration and rebirth. This is not the L.A. that appears in tourist brochures.

This is a games arcade, with nearby clothing, jewelry and music stores. Other entrepreneurs sell soft drinks, fortune-telling, knock-off handbags and street food.

I love the visual cacaphony of signs, blinking lights, banners, colors and shapes. Above and along the street, the buildings are classic turn-of-the-century architectural landmarks - hidden treasures to explore. This is one of the richest environments I've known, and I long to explore every bit of it.