Shoes on Wires' photostream  

"Shoes on Wires" - (shooz - awn - wahyuhrz) - noun (pl) - shoesonwires.com - urban and suburban semiotic, indicating unusual media in the vicinity (photos, books, music, sounds); gang sign for free, Creative Commons imagery ("Dawg, check this dope Shoes on Wires for the new album cover."); iconic image of the 20th and 21st centuries, combining elements of street art, consumerism, identity, and mass culture.

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Shoes on Wires does books:



Woodlands By Justus Hayes
Book Preview

"Woodlands" is an exploration of the inside of one of Greater Vancouver's most troubling landmarks, the abandoned "school" for the mentally handicapped (and our province's first insane asylum), before flames destroyed the complex in 2008. The photos were taken over three visits; the book also contains historical data and floorplans.



Practical Fieldguide to Alien Abduction By Justus Hayes
Book Preview

The "Practical Fieldguide to Alien Abduction" features stunning, original photographs of aliens, their ships, and their habitats, along with some good advice for the potential abductee.




Things Fall Apart By Justus Hayes Book Preview

A little book of urban exploration. I put this one together to keep in my camera bag so I would have something to show the police officer when he or she asks me why I am tresspassing.

ROY G. BIV a convergence of Flickr, Blurb, and the Creative Commons - Edited by Justus Hayes Book Preview

"ROY G. BIV" contains over 200 high quality images culled from the Creative Commons. Beautiful stock photography to use on your blog, or any project - and they're free!

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Why Shoes on Wires? As you might expect when it comes to something as (un)important as an online name, there are a number of reasons. I've always been amused and fascinated by the practice. I love that it's a bit of an enigma and has some lore attached to it - "It's a sign of gang activity," "It's a sign that drugs are dealt there." Ha! It's a sign that somebody had some old shoes and wanted to leave a mark that would be difficult (or at least time consuming and inconvenient) to remove. It's an urban practice, largely, and urban landscapes are my favorite subjects. I also like the stong graphic quality that a pair of shoes flung over a wire has - backlit against a sky deepening to twilight, why, it's almost iconic. Not to mention that it's free advertising for me - I'm betting that anyone who has heard my name will think of me and my work when they next see a pair of sneakers hanging from a telephone line. Hey, that's sneaky! Or should that be sneakery?

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If I leave a rather cryptic comment on one of your pics along the lines of, "Digital frame-worthy," or, "This one is going into my digital frame," it means just that. I recently received a Kodak digital frame, and rather than fill it with my own photos I have instead filled it with other people's photos. If one of your shots makes it to my digital frame, that means I really love it and want to have it around for inspiration and ongoing enjoyment. Kind of like an ultra-favorite.

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