“Poetry 86” — A weathered Aberdeen wall with graffiti, pipes, and street art.
It may seem odd that someone cast as a “landscape photograph” is also intrigued by rough-edged urban scenes. To some these subjects may seem as radically different from natural landscapes as can be imagined, but I see connections. In fact, I like to think of photographs like this one from Aberdeen, Scotland as “urban landscapes.”
“Cubist Wall” — A wall of rectangles and colors, Cork, Ireland.
When we travel we like to combine the new with the familiar. That was true on our recent trip — the Scotland portion was an extension of the familiar, and Ireland was new to us. That’s right, this was our first visit to the Republic of Ireland. We know there is much, much more to Ireland than we could see in a week, but on this trip we focused on three cities: Dublin, Galway, and Cork. This photograph comes from Cork.
“Sandstone Towers” — Red rock sandstone towers, Arches National Park.
Remembering the October day when I made this photograph, I recall that there were some thunderstorms around the area and that we had mixed light. These were those wonderful conditions where it might rain one moment and the next there might be brilliant sunshine, always with the possibility of a dramatic sky. It appears that I made this exposure during one of those sunny breaks. (Looking at other original exposures in the sequence, not all of them had this light.)
“Windows and Yellow Wall, Pena Palace” — Pena Palace windows and yellow walls on a rainy day, Portugal.
The Pena Palace sits on the summit of a ridge above the town of Sintra, a short train ride from Lisbon. From a distance the place seems unreal, given its location, its architecture, and its striking color scheme. Up close the weathering changes the effect a bit, but in a way that only seems to make the place a bit more mysterious.