233 - Lingua Franca

I applied to the Photography+ Open Call: The People's Pictures today. It is for their upcoming magazine, on the topic of vernacular photography. So I submitted one of the Primark images. 

They asked for a description, and I wrote something along these lines:

West End Primates is a candid series of photographs, taken outside Primark on Oxford Street, London 2011. In an environment bristling with hostile-architecture, this department store offered the luxury of smooth, bench style windowsills. People paused and in the moments of pause, incidental moments of solitude, family, romance and friendship played out. On a primal level, the shoppers were hunter gatherers. Civilisation created the brand, which they used to commune. It was their bond and lingua franca.

When I was cycling to the gym I (seemingly) phrased the part about hunter gatherers just right in my head, but I didn't have my phone and by the time I got home I'd forgotten it and had to labour over it. So perhaps a bit laboured and / or pretentious. I might change it.