Tag Archives: urban

Bench, Wall With Fado Tiles

Bench, Wall With Fado Tiles
“Bench, Wall With Fado Tiles” — A bench on a slanted sidewalk and a wall with Fado tiles, Lisbon.

I love little off-kilter scenes like this one. In the center are two tile illustrations of the fado music tradition of Portugal. (The tiles were seen in an earlier post on this website.) They are aligned to perfect verticals and horizontals. But everything else tilts — the bench on the cobbled sidewalk, the pipe that frames the image, the wiring attached to the walls. A door at the left, barely intruding into the frame, is the only other thing that lines up.

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Fado Tiles, Lisbon

Fado Tiles, Lisbon
“Fado Tiles, Lisbon” — Fado tiles on a wall along a sidewalk in the Alfama neighborhood, Lisbon

I found these beautiful little tiles on a wall along a street in the Alfama neighborhood of Lisbon. The truth of the matter is that I made a photograph of the wall, only barely aware of the tiles, and then took a closer look at them while working on the larger image in post. They appear to have been created by the same artist/craftsperson, judging by the signature, and I think they are relatively contemporary.

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Lisbon Graffiti #2

Lisbon Graffiti #2
“Lisbon Graffiti #2” — Brilliantly colorful graffiti on a door in the Alfama district of Lisbon, Portugal.

I am often a bit uneasy about photographing street art, tags, and graffiti. In some cases it feels more like attention-getting vandalism than creative work. But there are exceptions in places where it seems to be mostly tolerated, and when the work seems like an interesting expression.

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Woman With Blue Bags, Alfama

Woman With Blue Bags, Alfama
“Woman With Blue Bags, Alfama” — A woman carrying heavy blue bags walks along past weathered buildings along a curving Alfama street, Lisbon.

This photograph is a result of one of the quick, unexpected encounters that occur when doing street photography. Sometimes they happen so fast that there is hardly time to photograph. This one was brief, but not so quick that I couldn’t make a couple of photographs.

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