“Passing Cyclist, Le Marais” — A bicycle rider quickly passes at a cross street in Le Marais, Paris.
I often ponder the similarities and differences among the various genres of photography I pursue. (If you follow me you have seen everything from landscapes to night photography to street photography to travel and more.) The connection between landscape and street photography especially interests me, partly because many people think of them as being utterly different. I think that there are some similarities. For example, I often think about the street landscape first, and then wait and watch for someone to animate it.
That was the case here. I was interested in the wall at the end of this narrow street, and the way that its view is bounded by the darker walls on either side. I knew that I could photograph people as they passed by. One tricky part of this is that I had no idea who was about to enter the scene or from which direction. So I had to be ready to react quickly. (This necessarily results in some less than remarkable photographs, too. I won’t share those!) The time was even shorter as this woman sped past on her bicycle.
“Woman in Winter Coat” — A woman in a winter coat walking on a cold day in Paris.
We walk a lot in the places we visit while traveling. Sometimes our goals are nebulous, if we have specific goals at all. On this day in Paris we left our hotel near the Palais Garnier opera house on a very cold morning and headed in the general direction of the Notre Dame Cathedral, miles away. The church had reopened literally days earlier, and while we figured that our chances of getting in were essentially zero, we did want to go see it now that the main restoration work was complete.
While it was good to see that the place is “back in business,” the visit was more than a little disappointing – huge crowds and barricades kept us at some distance. We continued on our walk, crossing to the other side of the Seine and starting back toward where we began. Somewhere around here I made this photograph. I barely recall making it, but I am sure it was a quick “grab shot.” I can tell you little about the woman at this point, aside from the fact that she looks as cold as I felt.
“Street Art, Zaragoza’ – A fanciful female face, street art, Zaragoza, Spain.
I may be misconstruing things that I do not understand, but it seems like some places in Europe tolerate graffiti and/or street art more than in the USA, and perhaps that some of it is a bit more sophisticated than the “tagging” that we see so often here. (Indeed, there is tagging in Europe — even in this image — and there is some fascinating street art in America, too.)
I photographed this detail of a wall in Zaragoza, Spain. I don’t know the cultural reference of the figure, if there is one, but the image caught my attention. I get a kick out of how it is positioned as if the vertical pipe is almost irrelevant — yet the pipe covering that eye does affect how we regard the face.
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.
“Rounding the Corner” — A woman walks around a corner on a quiet Madrid street at night.
Madrid is quite active at night — you’ve perhaps heard about the very late dinner hour there? We visited during the December holiday season, when the sun sets early, so there were even more hours of nighttime activity. I love to photograph urban areas at night, and these factors gave me lots of opportunities. Here a woman walks through a beam of light as she rounds a corner on a quiet street.
While it was possible to find quiet moments like this, many places in Madrid were packed with people during the holiday season, especially in the late afternoons and evenings. Major streets were filled with pedestrians and restaurants and bars were packed.
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 G Dan Mitchell.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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