“Alfama Laundry” — Laundry hung by entry door and stairs, Alfama.
I know. Laundry hanging above urban homes in foreign cities is more than a bit of a cliche. I’ll try to minimize it, but sometimes I cannot resist. Here it is really more about the wild range of colors in the photograph, from that laundry to the colorful overhead streamers above the lane, and the contrast with the other less-colorful surroundings.
“Church Interior, Ghent” — Angled light falls across a wall inside a church in Ghent, Belbium.
I have a somewhat embarrassing confession to make about this photograph. I know that I made it in a church in the Belgium town of Ghent… but I failed to record which church it was! In my (weak) defense, this is a town of many churches — I don’t think I’ve seen many others with so many steeples. And after a few weeks of visiting Various European cities it is possible that I was starting to suffer from an overdose of church architecture.
“Eglise de Notre-Dame Des Victoire” — Altar and stained glass windows at the Eglise de Notre-Dame Des Victoire, Brussels.
This beautiful church in Brussels, the Eglise de Notre-Dame Des Victoire, doesn’t seem to be on the tourist map. But we think it was well worth the visit. We walked there from our lodgings in the touristy old part of Brussels. Walking away from there changed our perspective on the city. It appeared that we may have been the only tourists at this church.
Entering the church it was rather dark. But once our eyes adjusted to the natural light, we noticed that sunlight was streaming in through stained glass windows along its east side . At the front of the church, the stained glass windows comprised most of the vertical surfaces, and this created a lovely, light-filled area.
“Peja Signs” — An eclectic selection of advertisements, business signs, and stencils on wall in Peja, Kosovo.
There’s perhaps more going on in this photograph than meets the eye. Some elements didn’t fully register when I made the exposure, and in all likelihood there are more that I don’t yet understand. The photograph is from the Kosovo town of Peja, and “Birra Peja” is reportedly made from the water of the White Drin River, an important element of the Kosovo landscape with its source in the mountains just outside town.
The first thing that I noticed was the stenciled blue text on the white wall, along with the (hard to see) red stencil of a person whom I presume to be a Kosovo political figure of some sort. (The English text says “WHO ARE WE?!”) But the red signs, near and far, were also obviously part of the attraction of the scene, as were the particular products: the beer, a drink called “GO+,” and the smaller “Prima Pizza” sign. I’ll leave readers and viewers to ponder what else might be there.
Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.