Tag Archives: stucco

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Weathered Street Art

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Weathered Street Art
“Weathered Street Art” — The weathered and worn figure of a man, on a wall in Montpellier, France.

There is a fine line when photographing things like this between appropriation of someone else’s creative work and making the image because the placement and weathering themselves provide independent visual interest. In short, I’m not big on simply photographing what other people create, but I do seek out and photograph things like this bit of weathered street art found on a wall in Montpelllier, France.

I suspect that it has or had some meaning or message that isn’t apparent to me — either because I lack the cultural context to see it or because it has been weathered to the point where it is no longer apparent. For me, that weathering itself is part of the attraction. In this case, the bits that remain suggest something like a genie emerging from a bottle.

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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel

Shades of Blue

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“Shades of Blue” — Details of a blue wall with shutter, Equisheim, Alsace.

I think of these photographs as a sort of “found geometry” — patterns of color and texture and lines that can be viewed abstractly if you prefer. When I travel I’m usually on the lookout for these little vignettes, which are everywhere once you start looking for them. This one is simply a wall of a building in the little Alsatian town of Eguisheim.

Beyond their abstract qualities, these subjects can also hold a lot of history if you look closely. Eguisheim is a very old town, and very old towns contain a lot of, well, very old stuff. But they also are usually continuously updated, repaired, and spruced up. We can let new things go for a while without maintenance, but these old structures require a lot of attention. Here someone has obviously taken the time to paint the walls in multiple colors. But before long the old walls wear out and chip and crack.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Doorway, Arezzo, Italy

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Doorway, Arezzo, Italy
“Doorway, Arezzo, Italy” — Doorway and wall on a side street in Arezzo, Italy.

We came to this scene during a long exploratory walk. Our lodgings were in the lower part of old Arezzo, and as we walked into the old business area the streets began to ascend. There were people about, but it was nothing like the crowds in tourist centers like Florence, from which we had just arrived. Eventually we arrived at Arezzo’s Grand Piazza, but we kept going, right up to the old wall at the crest of the hill. We followed this to the left, stopping to enter an old church. As we came out I saw this little scene, which seems so characteristically Italian.

The building was on a small square near the entrance to the church. It had the features that are common here, including the stonework and the stucco walls, in one of the typical colors in these towns. (They tend toward earth tones of one sort or another.) As uncrowded as the lower town had been, here at the upper end we were almost alone.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Three Windows, Florence

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Three Windows, Florence
Three windows with green shutters on a weathered wall in Florence, Italy

Three Windows, Florence. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Three windows with green shutters on a weathered wall in Florence, Italy

This is one of the most prevalent color combinations we saw in Italian towns this past summer — the variations on golden-brown (which can range from essentially tan to dark brown) and the green shutters. I’m sure that not all of the shutters are actually green, but on some days it seemed so. And while I’m listing the typical things, the distressed wall surface needs to be included, as that is very common, too.

The three windows were on a nondescript building in Florence, on a side street a ways away from the bustling center of the touristy historic district. Here the streets were almost empty, and we wandered slowly among buildings, a small park, and portions of a university campus. I like the combination of the symmetry of the three windows with the distances of the open window at the left.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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