Colors of Downtown Provo

I live in downtown Provo. I'm on Center Street two or three times a week and other parts of downtown daily. But, it's a lot more colorful than you'd think. 

Something I wasn't as aware of was the emerging counterculture which includes the Gay Pride nights at City Limits (a local bar) and this red sticker appearing on more cars throughout Utah Valley, which I saw stuck to a bumper, parked on Sunday afternoon. 

In addition to the counterculture is a prominence of Latin American influence, which includes not only restaurants in Downtown, but a budding social atmosphere as well. These ads below direct interested Latinos to entertainment in Salt Lake City, but one annual Latin American festival took place just blocks away, during the evenings preceding this photoshoot. 

Walking down to the next corner, I noticed a Night Depository box, which makes me think the building there used to be a bank. It's now an attorney's office, but I didn't investigate as to whether this box is still in use. (I was fascinated by the faint, cyan hue in the metal and brought that out in post). 

Just West of City Limits is this hard to miss book store, Pioneer Book. My day never short of irony, I hadn't really paid attention to what this was when I've passed it in my car. Unfortunately,  I wasn't able to go in, as it happens to be closed on Sunday (surprise), but I never really noticed the colors before. (I did a little doctoring in each of these photos to bring out the vibrance and you might notice a subtle vignette: this image especially captures what I felt when I noticed the building. I hope to discover more of what' inside, soon.)

Finally, as I was headed home, I noticed a little burger joint I'd only heard of in Provo: Tommy's Burger. Apparently, it's an old-fashioned burger and malt shop akin to the celebrated In N' Out fast food chain, also started in California. I was surprised to find this little "vintage" gem hanging on the fence in the rear of the lot. (It's quite a bit more faded in person).  

What this assignment also led to was the discovery of Coca-Cola's dominance in Downtown Provo. What I realized is even if it's a can or bottle sitting in a trash can, you can't help but notice Coke is everywhere. (The 30 or so shots I got there have snowballed into an even bigger side project.)