Call Eli
December 30, 2017
This store was someone’s dream… I’m going to say that it was Eli’s store and ergo Eli’s dream of how he was going to make it big in the world. He had a dream of how he was going to leave his mark on Los Angeles and it started with buying this tiny downtown location and then people were going to know his name.
He must have been so excited when he got the loan from the bank and the deed to the property. He must have felt the pride swelling in his chest, an ever expanding mass, inflating beyond anything he had ever felt before as he hastily scribbled his signature in triplicate, initialing here, here and here and dating there. I imagine him driving by the storefront on his way home from the bank, creeping slowly by while road-raging Angelinos furiously leaned on their horns behind him, showing their contempt for his pace the only way we know how.
And so Eli set-up shop and although now it’s hard to tell now what he was selling or what services he was providing, he must have thought he had found some small niche that he could fill–a hairline fracture he could squeeze through that everyone else had somehow missed. Once he had seen his chance I bet it consumed him. I wonder if he slept the first few nights or if he was up till the wee hours planning and scheming on how he would set up the display cases or the shelves on the walls or the logo design for the sign.
Maybe business was good in the beginning and then started to drop-off, slowly. Maybe Eli’s failed from day one. Maybe Eli had over extended himself, bought to much inventory and couldn’t make his loan payments. Maybe the mortgage was too high or the margins were too low. Maybe people didn’t need what he was selling. Maybe I’ll never know why, but Eli had to close his doors and everything had to go. He got rid of the inventory, sold off the furniture and forgot the future that was Eli’s dream.
All that’s left for Eli now is to lease out that little downtown storefront for other people’s dreams. Call him. His number is 310-266-7700 and his name is Eli. Lease his dream for a while.
Shot on my Mamiya 6MF at 50mm on Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed +1 at the Icon.