Days and Nights in W12. Photographs and text: Jack Robinson (2/4)

Posted: June 30, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Vanishings | Tags: , , | Comments Off on Days and Nights in W12. Photographs and text: Jack Robinson (2/4)

Pavement with chalk rectangle: Percy Road, W12, 2007. Photo © Jack Robinson.

From Days and Nights in w12* by Jack Robinson:

PAVEMENT WITH CHALK RECTANGLE

One morning a few months ago a packing crate was delivered to the house of the woman, Emma, who lives here. About five feet long by two feet wide by three feet high, it could have contained a library of pornographic videos, or two folded illegal immigrants, or everything she had ever lost. Apart from hers, the only address on the crate was that of a transport company in Tallinn, Estonia. The van driver and his mate unloaded the crate onto the pavement but said they were not obliged to carry it up the steps into the house. Emma waited for her boyfriend to come home. At lunchtime the crate was still there, but when she looked out of the window at five o’clock it had gone. She never told her boyfriend about the crate, and shortly afterwards they broke up.

© Jack Robinson.2011.

* CB Editions 2010.

Days and Nights in W12. Photographs and text: Jack Robinson (1/4)

Posted: June 29, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Amusements, Interiors, London Types | Tags: , , , | Comments Off on Days and Nights in W12. Photographs and text: Jack Robinson (1/4)

Massage parlour: Askew Road, W12, 2010. Photo: © Jack Robinson.

From Days and Nights in W12* by Jack Robinson:

MASSAGE PARLOUR

Extras? You mean, as in ‘other services offered’? She runs through a menu of the day’s specials and when they say the prices seem a bit expensive she says so is philosophy, which is what she is studying, and it’s especially expensive for foreign students and why do they think she’s working here, for the fun of it? Some of them ask her what’s wrong with a bit of fun, missing the point completely. Some of them make a joke of it, asking how much for the meaning of life. (A lot, she says; more than you can afford, little man.) Some of them suggest she should be studying economics, or at least taking a joint degree, and point out that if she charged less she might get more takers. They have a point, she admits; but she is proud of her philosophy essays and her tutor says she has a natural gift and she knows what she’s worth.

© Jack Robinson 2011. 

*CB Editions, 2010