Tag Archives: sidewalk

Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Seated People, Dog

October 8, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Seated people with a white dog in front of Florence shops on the Ponte Vecchio.

The Ponte Vecchio is a bridge across the Arno River in Florence, and it is covered with buildings, giving it a very different appearance than the typical cross-river bridge. Shops line the bridge and are open during the day, with some staying open into the evening.

It is, of course, a popular tourist spot — and we were tourists! When we walked across the first time it was close to sunset and the place was packed to the point that it was difficult to walk. There was the typical assortment of street artists, musicians, and men hawking cheap souvenirs. The lights were just coming on when I saw this small group of people and their dog sitting on the curb, somehow finding a way to look almost isolated in the midst of the crowd.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: France

Dumbed Down By Foreign Actors

October 2, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Graffiti on a wall along a Paris sidewalk

When traveling it pretty quickly becomes apparent that graffiti is a pretty universal thing. The amount may vary, but is probably as much a function of how quickly it is cleaned up as it is of the amount of it that is produced. (In some cities, both in the US and Europe, it is pretty clear that no one has bothered to remove it for a long time.) Broadly speaking, it comes in several types. The personal scrawls, or “tags,” seem pretty similar just about everywhere, and I rarely share them. (They also seem like the lowest form of graffiti, basically just a “look at me” or “see what I can get away with” kind of thing.) A second sort is more art/icon oriented and not particularly about text. (My “Je suis bleu” photograph from Le Marias includes such material.) It may or may not be political. A third type includes text messages — though some of the “art” graffiti may fit here, too — seems more overtly political and delivers some message, though the meaning may not always be clear.

I saw these “Dumbed Down By Foreign Actors” scrawls in quite few places in Paris. This one is in Montmartre. I’m not certain what it means, and a quick search didn’t provide any clear answers: is it literally about actors from foreign countries, or is it about (e.g. political) “actors,” or something else? I photographed this example as much for the surroundings as for the text itself. The old wall, painted (and partially re-painted) pink, the barred square area (not actually a window), and the interruption of the power box all are visually interesting to me.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street, Photographs: Utah

Walking Man, Mirrored Wall

September 30, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A walking man and other people are reflected in a mirrored wall, London

Here we have (yet another!) photograph of someone using a smart phone in the urban world, though here there are, I think, a few other elements that got my attention. I’m sure that I was paying attention to the continuous stream of people moving along this sidewalk, and I like to think that some sense of their motion comes through in the photograph. The mirrored wall that contains most of the subjects not only let me capture a “double” of the primary subject, but it also let me bring him forward from the reflected background of all the other people who are only visible in the mirrored image. You might also notice some interesting things related to color.

And there are some surprises. I read somewhere that one of the differences between painting and photography is that while the painter personally puts everything on the canvas (at least mostly) and therefore can know it fully, the photographer cannot possibly know every element of the scene. In fact it is common to only realize that the photograph contains unintentional elements after the fact. One of those is present here — look at the head of the man in his reflected image.

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Man On The Phone

September 29, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A man walks along a London street while conversing on the telephone

Recently I’ve been realizing that the image of people using cell phones is quite probably going to one of defining images of this period in time. Being part of it, I’m not sure we are quite conscious of how ubiquitous it is nor of how profoundly it has changed the activities of people and how they act in the urban environment. For example, a few years ago I joked that it used to be that you could tell tourists in the big city by how they wandered around gazing upwards — but that now you can identify them by looking for people walking around while staring straight down and screens.

So this photograph is partly a reference to and inspired by this idea about the phone and its ever-present visually defining role in the current era. Of course it is also about the fellow himself, who has, at least to me, a fascinating appearance. It is also about the surrounding urban landscape with its colors and angles and so forth.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sidewalk

Seated People, Dog

Dumbed Down By Foreign Actors

Walking Man, Mirrored Wall

Man On The Phone

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.