Fotoeins Fotografie

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18 for 18, Fotoeins Fotograms

18 for 18: Fotoeins Fotograms of 2018

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Above/Featured: A test image with the X70: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC – 1 May.

In continuing my year-end reviews over the last five consecutive years, I look back at 2018 through 18 Instagram images from two major travel events: Austria and Germany in May, and the American Southwest in October. One big change to the way I think about and carry out my photography has been the addition of a compact mirrorless fixed-prime camera, the Fujifilm X70, which I obtained in May.

(1) ➙ Innsbruck, 10 May

(2) ➙ Scharnitz, 12 May

(3) ➙ Alpbach, 14 May

(4) ➙ Vienna, 18 May

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The Steinhof Church (Church of St. Leopold) is one of the finest examples of turn-of-the-century architecture in Vienna. Designed and built by Otto Wagner, the church was inaugurated in 1907 for the patients of the Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital, which is now the Otto-Wagner-Spital complex. Many small fine details are by Wagner, but there were valuable contributions from Koloman Moser: mosaics and stained glass; from Othmar Schimkowitz: 4 angel sculptures; and from Richard Luksch: the statues on the two outer towers representing Saint Leopold and Saint Severin, the patron saints of Lower Austria. 2018 marks the centenary of Vienna Modernism, as the Austrian capital city highlights the works of Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Egon Schiele, and Otto Wagner for the entire year. Wien, 🇦🇹 – 18 May 2018 (HL, c6d img tag 93688).

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(5) ➙ Salzburg, 22 May

(6) ➙ Hallstatt, 25 May

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Day 18/27: I’m up at 4am so I can catch the 5am train out from Salzburg and make the appropriate connections to arrive in Hallstatt before 8am. Even in cloud and mist, it’s a beautiful (and historical) landscape that’s worth the lack of sleep. Hallstatt town can be reached by car and bus, but not directly by train. The tiny station is on the other side of the lake (Hallstätter See), and a boat shuttle brings passengers across the lake and into town. The town is “squeezed” between the lake and massive cliffs and mountains encircling the lake. In town, I’m trekking along a ridge high enough I’m at the same level as attics and roofs for the houses below. It seems remarkable how the town handled the volume of vehicular traffic through narrow winding streets before construction of the bypass. There are older buildings here, of course, but the town rebuilt after the 1750 fire destroyed all the timber buildings. Hallstatt is famous for its history of salt making, and for over 7000 years started by the Celtic people, “white gold” brought immense wealth and prosperity to the area. (‘Hall’ is related to the Celtic word for ‘salt’.) At its peak influence, the Hallstatt culture spanned a large swath across western Europe from about 800 BC/BCE to 500 BC/BCE (late Iron Age). A diverse variety of archaeological objects have been found in and around the area’s salt mines. Salt is an effective preserver of organic material, as intended for food, and as unintended for those archaeological finds. UNESCO recognized and proclaimed the Hallstatt salt mine as a World Heritage Site in 1997. That’s driven my curiosity from the outset, and frankly, both town and lake are very easy on the eyes. #Hallstatt, 🇦🇹 – 25 May 2018 (HL, x70). #salzwelten #salzkammergut #dachsteinsalzkammergut #oberösterreich #upperaustria #visitupperaustria #feelaustria #visitaustria #fujix70 #fujifilmx70 #fotoeins

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(7) ➙ Ramsau, 26 May

(8) ➙ Obergrainau, 28 May

(9) ➙ Herakut in Munich, 31 May

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Day 24/27: I’ve had a self-imposed demanding and punishing schedule over the last three weeks in the pursuit of something that was uniquely Austrian through music, painting, architecture, and physics. Over the final stretch, I’m slowing waaay down in seeking art, memories, and memorials. Herakut is an artist duo whose street murals have appeared in Europe and around the world since 2004. Hera (Jasmin Siddiqui) and Akut (Falk Lehmann) use walls and big spaces for their big art with a signature look which includes expressive faces and big eyes, lots of photo-like details, and sharp typography. Their work explores issues such as physical and emotional isolation, gender and racial equality, and all the things we think and feel lurking inside. But I think their compositions also include long notes and pauses for vivid fantasy and playful whimsy. At this point of the entire trip, I wanted to be in Munich to see Herakut’s latest work before the exhibition’s final day. Their exhibition “Wahn|Sinn” is a reinterpretation of Goethe’s tragic play “Faust.” I step into the hall through open doors, and the mind expands that analogy to account how I feel; it’s as if I’ve flung all my doors wide open. Their latest work takes up the entirety of the lower floor, while other related pieces are found on the upper floor. I realize I needed to “see” it when a roughly painted face appears in a mirror with the words “I’m okay.” Einfach Wahnsinn. Verweile doch, Du bist so schön, so schön, so schön. MUCA München, 🇩🇪 – 31 May 2018 (HL, x70 img tags 7082, 7079, 7101, 7117).

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(10) ➙ Albuquerque, 6 October

(11) ➙ Tucumcari, 7 October

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Over the 2-week roadtrip through the American Southwest, we wanted to see what signage and structures remained from the famed “Mother Road”, known as highway US Route 66. From Albuquerque, we took off mid-afternoon and drove through heavy thunderstorms to arrive to calm skies over the town of Tucumcari some 40 miles west of the New Mexico-Texas border. When I-40 was built, the highway bypassed Tucumcari. This wasn’t a unique story to towns through which US-66 passed, but around which the interstate highways went and drawing cars and visitors away from these once vibrant towns. When we arrived in Tucumcari at 8pm, the town was very quiet with few cars and few people, but we wouldn’t be disappointed. Reworded from RoadsideAmerica DOT com. Located at the town’s convention center, the Route 66 Monument is a recent addition to the signage and memories; the sculpture is a semi-whimsical tribute to the Mother Road. Artist Tom Coffin was commissioned by Tucumcari, the New Mexico Highway and Transportation Department, and the New Mexico Arts Commission to create the artwork. The sculpture is set on a sloping base that looks like a Tex-Mex temple made with sandstone, tires, and serpentine two-lane road outlines. Dedicated in 1997, the sculpture is topped with a chrome Cadillac-like fin, tail lights (illuminated at night), and a pair of tubular Hippie Font sixes. The entire top looks like it’s about to race off westwards on the road to Los Angeles. Tucumcari, NM, 🇺🇸 – 7 Oct 2018 (HL, c6d img tag 95311).

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(12) ➙ Continental Divide, 12 October

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YA-TAH-HEY. We pull off Interstate-40 at exit 47 onto the frontage road which also happens to be old highway US route 66. There’s an Indian Market building with lots of room in front to park a couple of large bus coaches. Next door is a Phillips 66 gas station with a building that’s the Indian Village Gift Shop. But we’re here for the signage and the view. This is a part of Continental Divide in northwestern New Mexico, some 49 miles west of the state border with Arizona. The unincorporated community has over 400 residents and has its own small post office. As geographic feature stretching “diagonally” across North America, the continental divide is a drainage divide: water to the west of the divide flows down to the Pacific Ocean, and water to the east of the divide flows down to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Yáʼátʼééh: hello, and goodbye. Continental Divide, NM, 🇺🇸 – 12 Oct 2018 (HL, x70 img tags 9586, 9562, 9590).

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(13) ➙ Glen- & Marble Canyon, 13 October

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It’s easy to forget the Grand Canyon is caused by the scouring and eroding effects of the Colorado River over geologic timescales. It’s also easy to forget the Colorado River isn’t some mysterious “water snake” lurking at the bottom of a deep canyon. The river itself has to have modest origins, but when there’s relatively ‘soft’ rock and you’ve got (geologic) time to kill, even modest origins can look mighty impressive. Case in point is this view northeast over the Colorado River from the Navajo Bridge, near the town of Marble Canyon on US route 89A and about 14 miles (23 kilometres) north from the US-89A/-89 junction at Bitter Springs. No direct route existed between Utah and Arizona for the longest time, apart from portaging across the quieter parts of the Colorado River. Inaugurated in 1929, the Navajo Bridge provided a vital river crossing on the way from Kanab, Utah, and across the Kaibab Plateau to locations south and east in Arizona. The bridge was known as the Grand Canyon Bridge until 1934 when the Arizona state legislature changed the name to Navajo Bridge. With a stronger wider bridge as parallel replacement in 1995, the Navajo Bridge is now a pedestrian bridge at the southern perimeter of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Behind me is where the Grand Canyon National Park begins. Marble Canyon, AZ, 🇺🇸 – 13 October 2018 (HL, x70 img tag 10051).

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(14) ➙ Grand Canyon (North), 13 October

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We’d always wanted to see the Grand Canyon with our own eyes and for the very first time. But there’s a very good reason why we went first to the North Rim: out of 6 million annual visitors to the Grand Canyon, only 1 out of every 8 visitors stops at the North Rim. From Cameron to Marble Canyon on US-89 and -89A, the sun had shone brightly, illuminating Echo Cliffs and Vermilion Cliffs along the way and “blowing up” our eyes with deep brilliant reds and oranges and strong hints of violet. But as we’d climbed up the Kaibab plateau towards the North Rim, clouds began obscuring both colour and light. That was no deterrence, as we continued upwards and onwards through subalpine and alpine forests. At 8803 feet (2683 metres), Point Imperial is the highest overlook on either north or south rim of the Grand Canyon. This southeast facing view provides us with our first ever “grand” sighting of the Grand Canyon, as well as the location where the Little Colorado River empties into the Colorado River. Point Imperial, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ, 🇺🇸 – 13 Oct 2018 (HL, 6d1 img tag 95666).

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(15) ➙ Grand Canyon (South), 14 October

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We’d always wanted to see the Grand Canyon for the first time. We had already driven up and over to the North Rim, an area visited by only 1 out of every 8 visitors to the Grand Canyon and where we saw the vast deep chasm on a quiet overcast autumn afternoon. The following day we retraced our route from Marble Canyon, past Vermilion Cliffs and Echo Cliffs, onto Cameron and west to Desert View. Apart from a few puffy clouds, there was abundant sunshine and blue skies to accompany the reds, oranges, browns, and (low-season) crowds. Not only does this northeast facing view from the South Rim provides us with our second sighting of the Grand Canyon, but also adds a complementary perspective of the Little Colorado junction, Desert Facade, and Marble Platform, all seen the previous day from the North Rim. Desert View, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ, 🇺🇸 – 14 Oct 2018 (HL, 6d1 img tag 95826).

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(16) ➙ Tucson, 18 October

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Visitors to Tucson’s Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum will get their fill of flora and fauna. In mid-afternoon light, a bunch of black-tailed prairie dogs are oot and aboot in the Desert Grassland exhibit protected by glass and mesh to guard them from humans and birds of prey. Once native to the state, black-tailed prairie dogs were wiped out in Arizona by the 1930s from human incursion and destruction of their habitat and extermination from shootings and poisonings. The Arizona Game and Fish Department has reintroduced a small population into the Bureau of Land Management’s Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. As one of five prairie dog species, black-tailed prairie dogs still live throughout the western United States, parts of the Prairie Provinces in Canada, and Mexico. Prairie dogs are diurnal grassland squirrels, consuming mostly grass. They don’t hibernate, but stay underground for protection from weather and predators, which are eagles, hawks, bobcats, rattlesnakes, coyotes, badgers, and humans with competition for land to feed livestock. Tucson, AZ, 🇺🇸 – 18 Oct 2018 (HL, 6d1 img tag 96737).

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(17) Pie Town ➙ 19 October

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In our long drive from Tucson to Santa Fe, US route 60 is a deliberate choice just so we can pass through Pie Town, followed by the Plains of Augustin. Occasionally our unspoken looks along the way speak volumes: “are we there yet?” The distance from Tucson to Pie Town is 307 miles (494 km); from Pie Town to Santa Fe is another 222 miles or 357 km. Our excitement grows when we see road signs listing both town and the ever decreasing distance to said town. Finally, we arrive in Pie Town whose main street is naturally the highway. With 15 minutes to closing time, we step inside Pie-O-Neer: Stan says hello and provides us with a short history, we’re both astonished and completely won over by how warm and welcoming the cafe is, we drool over the remaining pieces of pie, and Kathy gets into the scene with a happy photobomb, all before we dig into our coffee ☕️ and pieces of pie 🥧. Note in this picture the “pi(e)-bar” symbol at lower-centre and the “peace of pi(e)” tie-dye shirts at right. Pie Town, NM, 🇺🇸 – 19 Oct 2018 (HL, x70 img tag 10507).

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(18) ➙ Vancouver, 20 December

Years past

•   17 for 17, from 2017
•   16 for (20)16, Urban Moments
•   16 for (20)16, Travel Instants
•   15 for 15, from 2015
•   14 for 14, from 2014
•   12 for 12, from 2012

This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-aaM, and refers to the LAPC set out here and here.

4 Responses to “18 for 18: Fotoeins Fotograms of 2018”

    • fotoeins

      Hi, Tina, and thanks for your comment. I think it’ll be 20 for 20 in 2020 😉 and please call me Henry! Thanks again for stopping by and all the best to you and your family in the new year.

      Like

    • fotoeins

      Hello, and thanks for your comment. I returned to Vancouver not because of any personal need or desire, but for filial responsibility. My urban preference definitely lies elsewhere, about which I’ve already photographed and expounded on my website in some detail 🙂 Thanks again for stopping by.

      Liked by 1 person

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