“A Lisbon Street” — A narrow, curving street in Alfama, lined with colorful buildings.
From my limited experience, this feels like a “typical” street of Lisbon’s Alfama district… except that the street is wider than many of the passageways. The lines suggest that it is two lanes wide — though I imagine that when a trolley goes up and down those tracks there isn’t a lot of room for anyone else!
There is a lot in this scene that attracted my attention. The street itself with its pairs of tracks and optimistic center dividing line is one. The stacked and tightly spaced buildings are another. And I love the saturated colors, from the nearly pure white to the many yellow buildings, and the bits of blue here and there.
“Alfama Street Art” — Detail of street art on a wall in the Alfama district of Lisbon.
This detail of a bit of Portuguese street art comes from the Alfama district of Lisbon. This is the oldest neighborhood of the city, with tightly spaced buildings and streets so narrow and twisting that vehicles cannot pass. It was (and reputedly still is) a neighborhood where the poor are more likely to live — though one can see a creeping urbanization occurring around the edges.
I don’t generally photograph graffiti — the “I am here” initials and other personal marks made in public spaces. But there’s a fine line between that and what I think of as street art. I will photograph the latter. Here the imagery covers of a mundane wall — look closely and you can make it out beneath the paint — and uses wildly exuberant patterns and colors.
“Trogir Waterfront, Morning” — Morning along the waterfront as clouds build, Trogir, Croatia.
I made this photograph close to the conclusion of early morning photography in Trogir, Croatia. We arrived in the old town on the island before sunrise and photographed the nearly deserted narrow, cobblestone streets, the architecture, and a few people who were out early, getting the town ready for the coming onslaught of visitors. As we finished — and before stoping for coffee nearby — we emerged on this side of the island, facing the channel between it and the part of the town across the water.
It was a really lovely morning. The warm sunlight was muted a bit as clouds appeared and a large thunderstorm appeared to develop over the city of Split, down the coast. Here we just had the over-spill from that mighty cloud — just enough to make the sky more interesting and to soften the light a bit.
“Old Bridge and Water” — An old and very dilapidated wooden bridge across the Valbona River, Albania.
This is one more (and perhaps the last) of my photographs from our brief foray into the Albanian Alps and the Valbona Valley during the summer of 2023. To recap, we were staying in Kosovo for several days, and one day our family member from Kosovo took us all on a trip into these remarkable mountains. I made the photograph on our drive back to Kosovo.
We stopped along a curve in the river where a small mosque stood on the opposite bank, backed by the distant peaks far up the valley. We got out and walked around a bit, eventually venturing onto a bridge across the river. From that bridge we could look down on what I assume is a much older bridge, the one in this photograph. It looked like you probably still could cross it… but you probably would not want to try! The bridge fascinated me, but so did the perfectly clear mountain water flowing over the stones on the riverbed.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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