Coca Cola faded wall Mysore India

Decades of Colour and Decay on a Wall in Southern India

I was walking down a side street in Mysore when I saw it—half-covered in grime, worn thin by time and sun. A Coca-Cola ad faded into the brick wall, as if it were being slowly erased. But even in that state—especially in that state—it held power. That raw, deteriorated surface became the foundation for this urban fine art wall print.

The wall told more than one story, layers of paint, ghost signs, and forgotten colour. You could see traces of older ads beneath the red—bits of lettering, shadowed outlines, maybe even hand-painted borders. The Coca-Cola faded wall in Mysore, India, wasn’t just weathered; it was layered, like sediment built over decades.

That’s what caught my attention. This wasn’t meant to be preserved. The ad was there for glances from passing scooters and market carts. But the way it held on—tilting, cracking, fading—gave it a second life. That’s what I wanted to capture. Not nostalgia. Not branding. Just surface, time, and texture turned into a quiet wall art print.

I kept the framing tight. No distractions. Just the washed-out colour, the cracked plaster, the typography barely holding shape. What was once bright and commercial is now abstract—half-erased language turned into a slow-burning story. That’s what drew me in. And it’s why this scene now lives on, printed with intention instead of buried under another coat of paint.

I didn’t expect to stop here. I was on my way to photograph something else entirely. But this wall—this moment of slow decay—pulled me in. I wasn’t interested in making a statement about branding or history. I just wanted to show how something can be beautiful long after it has ceased to be useful. This image is a quiet tribute to that kind of beauty.

© Dan Kosmayer, 2010