Tag Archives: weathered

Photographs: Netherlands, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Unfun

Image December 4, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Weathered wall with graffiti, Amsterdam

For the most part I don’t photograph graffiti, and on the rare occasions when I do in the US I may alter the painted “tags” in post in order to avoid giving publicity to folks who, it may be argued, are basically vandalizing the property of others. I’m also sometimes a bit uneasy, when the marks transcend mere graffiti and become street art, about simply capturing an image of someone else’s art and presenting it as my own.

But sometimes I can’t help myself. In fact, on our 2018 European travels we encountered so much graffiti that it would almost be dishonest to pretend that it isn’t part of the urban landscape. (Especially in Berlin. Very much especially in Berlin…) This little example comes from Amsterdam, and I appreciated several things about it. I was intrigued to see that it was mostly constrained to the blocks or rectangular material on the right side of the frame and mostly not on the bricks — almost as if these were somewhat well-mannered graffiti artists. The juxtaposition of shapes and colors interested me in its own right. And then there is that enigmatic “UNFUN” inscription in a somewhat neat sans-serif font, contrasting with the other colorful scrawls on this wall.

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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: France

Le Cirque de Venise

Image September 27, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

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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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Snag and Needles

Image September 26, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Detail of an old snag littered with a few needles

High in the Sierra Nevada, as you get close to the tree line, there are more and more of these old “snags” — the skeletal remnants of trees that died some time ago. In order to survive in such an environment, these trees must be very tough, and their forms given evidence of that. They often seem stunted and are twisted into remarkable shapes as they grow on and around rocks and boulders and slabs. They may survive for a long time, even as they sacrifice branches in to the elements. When they do die their wood lasts for decades. Living or dead, they sometimes seem to me to inhabit a space midway between geology and fauna, being as close to the rock as to more familiar green things.

As I have mentioned already, our location high in the eastern Sierra Nevada backcountry was in an area where the sun was blocked for hours after sunrise and for hours before sunset. In was mid-morning before any direct sunlight reached our camp and late afternoon when it left, and I could wander in the cold, soft light for hours making photographs… and freezing! I photographed this bit of an old snag in this softly shadowed blue-toned light.

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Photographs: France, Photographs: Urban/Street

Exposition Le Bikini, Wall

June 5, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A very worn and weathered Paris wall, plastered with flyers for the “Exposition Le Bikini.”

This is perhaps a bit of a whimsical photograph. As we walked through an older section of Paris back in 2016 we started coming upon lots of these posters. I assume that the event must have happened recently, as the flyers were worn but not so worn out that they couldn’t be read or seen.

I’m a sucker for worn and weathered surfaces, especially when they hold interesting shapes and forms and when there are layers of old “stuff” on the walls. If you look more closely at this you many find bits of old posters on top of bits of even older flyers.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: weathered

Unfun

Le Cirque de Venise

Snag and Needles

Exposition Le Bikini, Wall

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