Photoanalysis 2.

Dreamland.
November 2005, Margate, Kent.

My original shot appears here with its boxed-up counterpart. The blue box is for sky, the red for line-shapes and the white for letter-shapes. There is a lot of brick in this picture. There is a trio of flat and tall structure that stop you from staring at pure atmosphere. There are letters and ghost letters on the brick, CASH BINGO, DREAMLAND and DREA. Does the DREA suggest the blossom of dread or dreary? The uppercase letters tell of simple fact, does what it says. The foam-sweet curves of the DREA tell of the formerly illuminated face of the giant word, many small bulbs, and for who? These bulbs aren't cheap, this electricity isn't free. The smeared sharps of the projected gold merely told of an exciting and inviting place to put yourself, a land of dreams, an establishment of your imagination providing a service which surpasses it. I feel so spoilt now, dribbling innocent sarcasm.

The remains of faded, intentional graffiti show how the style of signage changed, when the painted word was no longer enough for the dazzled punters and indecisive travellers. Does cash bingo feature in your dreams? Cash is the prize, bingo is the obstacle. Those yellow capitals are now redundant too. The dream is over for Dreamland. The cash has bin and gone. That was an act of sadness.

So for all of the bricks, letters and nods to the past, a past where Dreamland had more success in financial terms, we are given a static relic, a former glory, a dead business. To some people it was a holiday factor, to others it was a noisy eyesore. To me, it was a ripoff and far too limited in its rides [by the age of eleven - the Looping Star scared me witless]. In defense of Dreamland, they did have a hacked Streetfighter 2 machine.