Another short project – this time to take images that have interesting textures.
I really enjoyed this.
The walls of Seville are filled with texture, so that is where I found most of these images in a few hours of pleasant wandering about in this great town.
I never normally set myself a ‘project’ – but I have watched friends do this with great results and so I have set myself the challenge for the last two days to capture images that in some way reflect what we mean by a ‘conversation’
I have tried to interpret it broadly – some conversations look forward, some backward – I even allowed myself images where the subject seemed deep in an internal conversation, or just invited interaction because they were so interesting. I have also processed some in black and white because the bright sunshine in Seville seemed to distract from the topic.
The idea came about because on Friday before I left I was in a bar in Hove and was watching two profoundly deaf men signing with each other.
I know so little about sign language, but they were using a kind of miming of words to compliment the signs – perhaps conveying context or emotion? But the result to me was two men who alternately just focussed on each other, calmly watching every movement.
This was a conversation as few men experience it – listening, giving space, focus, patience – a calm and genuine donation of “all of my attention” that so rarely takes place and yet is so healing and wonderful when it does.
This started me thinking about ‘conversation’ in a much wider sense – so it was on my mind when I arrived.
And I have already asked if I just used Photoshop to create the couple on the balcony. The answer is ‘no’ – these kind of illusions are quite common in Seville – normaly exactly like this – figures on balconies – and they are called Trampantojos. As I now understand it – thanks Beatriz! – they are used frequently in Spain to create an illusion of something that perhaps people can’t have – for example expensive stone walls.
At London Bridge today some windswept and weather beaten Londoners got a rare glimpse of the sun.
I was as surprised as everyone else and snapped this with my phone. I quite like it.
The full size image is here
We wait. The distraction of our breath becomes ever more conscious and we will it into silence and ourselves into invisibility. No audience belongs here. Our presence is unseemly.
The metal reaches the end of its arc, and is momentarily stationary as it reaches an unimaginable equilibrium before turning back. The surface waits. Frozen, faultless, strong; it has endured for an eternity.
It is hauntingly beautiful, this frozen moment of unknowing. A perfect balance, with neither force prevailing. A precisely indivisible state of impossible and equal suspension.
Cold sunlight glints on both and bounces between them.
Possibilities are so human, so full of questions. But the arcing, spinning coin must in the end finally fall.
Notes from the Word Hoard
The way the exercise works is explained here.
Phrases
windows are eyes
can’t blink
Captured in its imperfections
An echoing geometry
A rival set of shapes
the frozen moment
The first fracture
Hook the possibilities
Have I shapes
the frozen moment* Selected
What a great city London is.
In just a couple of hours I found so many images and places to get me thinking.
So many times, if I want to capture images I just need to get out there. Travel of any kind is so stimulating, and there’s nothing wrong when a very short train ride can provide the same kind of response as an international flight..
I particularly enjoyed taking the featured image for this post. Some free runners practising created this opportunity when the woman appeared in the distance.
Walking is such a simple pleasure.
Although some prefer to swim..
I am so happy to be back in Seville. To feel progress in my Tango. To meet friends again. To dance. To be in the sunshine.
And to wander the streets capturing images..
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What a great place, such friendly, welcoming people. And how Tango so facilitates travelling by yourself. You have a structure, a knowledge – its like a common language.
Love it!
Literally…
Funny how some very silly images still make me feel a bit scared. Must be a childhood thing..
Was in a noisy pub in Brighton this evening and took a few minutes out to look for images where you wouldn’t normally expect them.
Juxtaposition is a good one to look for – here the light behind the wine glass offers a commentary.
Maybe the lamp shade also encourages you to make assumptions as the viewer – is this a basic kind of place where both the lamp and the wine could do with upgrading?
