The front of an old home in Neckarsteinach, Heidelberg, Germany area
I’ll keep the commentary brief on this one. We traveled by boat a short distance up the Neckar River from the Altstadt Heidelberg area last summer and stopped here to wander a bit and to eat. Our wandering took us up and down some narrow, twisty, hill streets and past some beautifully weathered homes.
A window in an old building in the Heidelberg area, Germany
Yes, I still have more photographs from this past summer’s visits to New York, London, and several European locations — lots more! After London and Paris we headed to Germany, and returned to Heidelberg, which almost seems like a home base for us. Patty’s brother and his wife live there, and in the middle of five weeks of travel it was wonderful to spend time in their Heidelberg home.
This time we hopped on a boat and travelled up the river a ways to a more distant suburb (?) of Heidelberg, where things feel a bit more rustic, at least to this first-time visitor to that particular spot. When we got there we spent some time simply wandering around, walking up narrow and hilly streets. I spotted this window in a weathered wall along the shaded side of one of the buildings we passed — so on this one week anniversary of the American election you get a heart in a window.
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.
“Sidewalk Art, Le Marais” — Art presented for along a sidewalk in Le Marais, Paris
Several days into our recent visit to Paris we finally made our way to the Le Marais district, partly because it had been recommended (by our oldest son and others) and partly because we wanted to visit a photography museum found in the area, Maison Européenne de la Photographie. The area proved to be very interesting and to be a wonderful place to photograph.
It now is, from what I could see and what I’ve read, a rather “trendy” place — lots of shops and restaurants and so forth. But it also has a history, and I understand that it managed to escape some of the modernization of Paris that took place since the 1800s, including a proposal to raze the area and even to put a major thoroughfare there. These things didn’t happen, so now there are beautiful old (sometimes very old) buildings along narrow and twisting streets. As in almost every place that visitors go in Paris, there are people selling things on the streets. Most of the products are cheap trinkets, but here it was sidewalk art, and I photographed the display while the artist/vendor was elsewhere for a few moments.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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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.
