Numerical Street

Continuing in the narrative non-fiction style explored in Alphabetical Sydney, this time Bell and Pesenti rework the classic counting-book typology through a walk up Numerical Street.

Numerical Street celebrates the jostle and chaos of a busy shopping street, playfully documenting familiar shops and businesses: Coin-op laundries, cake shops, panel beaters and hair salons.

These unremarked shops are a disappearing species. In the two years spent photographing suburban and regional shopfronts for Numerical Street many have vanished, including much-loved urban icons like Sol Levy’s Tobacconist Extraordinaire on George Street and Perkal Brothers Bespoke Bootmakers in Surry Hills.

Numerical Street captures a moment in time and place, distilling the beauty and charm of these everyday shops into bold double spreads based on actual shops - using the language and type of their signs, architecture and product display.