Tag Archives: wall

Photographs: France

Le Cirque de Venise

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Le Cirque de Venise
A stone wall, a weathered door, and an advertisement for a circus, near Barbizon, France

Le Cirque de Venise. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A stone wall, a weathered door, and an advertisement for a circus, near Barbizon, France

Near the end of this past summer’s lengthy travels (from New York to London, to many areas in Europe) we ended up in France, not far from Fontainebleau, where we joined members of our extended family for a week at a big old house we rented. After all of the previous travels from place to place, typically stopping in one city for no more than four nights, it was a relief to stay in one place for a week and to have time to slow down a bit.

Near the end of this stay, one morning we all decided to walk to the nearby town of Barbizon. Like so much in France, this place was virtually unknown to me. We walked through some fields and along a country road to get there, arriving to visit the studio of the artist Millet and to have lunch. Along the way I spotted this sign for what I assume to be a traveling circus.

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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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Netherlands, Photographs: Urban/Street

Three Men

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Three Men
Three men walk past multi-colored shutters in Amsterdam

Three Men. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three men walk past multi-colored shutters in Amsterdam

I think I may recall where I made this photograph and the circumstances, but I’m not sure. I do know that these multi-colored sliding security shutters first caught my attention. I then did what I often do when I see an interesting street subject: I stopped and waited for interesting people to populate the scene. A few individuals walked through, then a couple with a child, but nothing seemed all that interesting. Then these three fellows came along, walking more or less in step.

The painting of the shutters surprised me a bit. First, it must have taken someone quite a bit of work to do this — it would not be easy painting all of those separate pieces in different colors! Second, in many places in many cities, these shutters are often largely covered with graffiti. But not here — respect for the colors, perhaps?

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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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Urban/Street

Time To Dance

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Street art in Berlin, Germany

Time To Dance. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street art in Berlin, Germany

I made this photograph in Berlin, not too far from the “East Side Gallery,” which is a still-standing remnant of the Berlin Wall that was turned over to artists and which is now covered by paintings. The scene in this photograph is not part of the “gallery,” but was instead a graffiti covered wall we passed on the way to the wall. I don’t make a habit of photographing graffiti, often because I don’t want to contribute the notoriety of some folks who vandalize public and private property. But here the stuff is everywhere and seems to have become a part of the environment, so I’m making an exception.

Besides the wild colors and patterns of this street art, there was another reason for photographing it. While I don’t know “her” cultural significance, the figure in the center of the scene keeps showing up in photographs of mine. I encountered and photographed her twice on a visit to Paris two years ago. In one photograph she appears on a wall, partially obscured by ivy. In another, one of my favorite photographs, she is one of several related figures pasted onto a Le Marais wall behind a small group of pedestrians. Oddly, some of the surrounding “stuff” on this wall seems very similar to that in the Paris photographs, making me think that he appearance may not be quite random.

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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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Germany, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Red Wall

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Red Wall
A person walks in front of a painted section of the Berlin Wall

Red Wall. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A person walks in front of a painted section of the Berlin Wall

Before I say much about this photograph, a bit of background. Near the start of August 2018 we departed from California’s West Coast on a trip that would last forty days. We started with a brief visit to New York City, followed by another brief visit to London — both great places to visit and to adapt more slowly to the time zone changes. From there we made a rough loop that took us to Amsterdam, Berlin, Nuremberg (briefly!), Bayreuth (site of the famous Wagner festival), Heidelberg (for rest and recuperation… and laundry!), Vienna, Paris, and then a week outside of Paris near Barbizon with family. Whew! It was a great trip, with a few familiar places and some that were new to us. Along the way we had lots of opportunities to make photographs, and I’ll be starting to share some of them over the next few weeks and months.

We had three full days (four nights) in Berlin, a city that neither of us had visited before. We don’t travel with tour groups, so we were mostly on our own to explore, and most of our exploring was done on foot. On our last full day we headed east from where we were staying, eventually making our way to the “East Side Gallery.” This is a large section of the Berlin Wall that was not knocked down, but instead turned into a vast canvas for artists. My approach to photographing such a thing isn’t precisely to photograph the art itself, but instead to try to place it in its surroundings and/or photograph people interacting with it — which is the case with this man dressed in red who walked in front of this red section of the former “red” wall.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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