Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place & home
Weihnachten, Christmas Day 2012, Bielefeld, North-Rhine Westphalia, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, fifty-three

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

25 December 2012.

I look at this image with fondness and bittersweet ache.

I’m in Bielefeld for Christmas, and I’m at the family home of Dr. S with his wife and two daughters. There is warmth, laughter, and the low murmurs and snippets of chat about the best possible recipe or step forward at the stove. I have to hold onto this tiny spark in time, that’ll be lost forever if I don’t grab my camera. In truth, this is the kind of thing I’ve always yearned for and avoided at the same time. But, the flicker is strong in the moment, and this memory will remain true and long.

He passed away suddenly in July 2020. I miss our chats, especially about American football because he was a lifelong fan of the Minnesota Vikings.

I made the image on 25 Dec 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/20-sec, f/3.5, ISO800 and 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-nfY.

My Vienna: 22 urban frames for 2022

Above/featured: “The first Sunday.” Karlsplatz, 1st district – 15 May 2022.

Earlier in the year, I spent four weeks in Vienna, soaking in late-spring and early-summer weather in Austria’s capital city. I highlighted 3 images and scenes which in addition to time spent left personal impressions. Below, I highlight in a “last chance effort” an additional 22 visual examples of the urbanity in Wien, folding in splashes of colour, lines of focus, and accessibility to good timing.

( Click here for images and more )

Königsufer, Augustusbrücke, Dresdner Altstadt, Sächsisches Ständehaus, Residenzschloss, Kathedrale Sanctissimae Trinitatis, Elbe river, Dresden, Saxony, Sachsen, Deutschland, Germany, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, fifty-two

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

21 December 2012.

Coming to a close is my time in Berlin, as well as my year on the road. It’s (northern) winter solstice, and I’ve decided to make a quick day trip south to Dresden. Because of limited daylight compounded by overcast skies, it’s no surprise my time here is too short, and I make a note to come back (which I make good 3 years later). Meanwhile, with fading light on Königsufer on the bank of the Elbe river, I get a brilliant view of Dresden’s Old Town, highlighted at centre by the Sächsisches Ständehaus, Residenzschloss (palace), and Kathedrale Sanctissimae Trinitatis (cathedral); Augustusbrücke bridge is at right.

I made the image on 21 Dec 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/10-sec, f/4, ISO800, and 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-nfJ.

Marienbrücke, Inn river, Inn, Passau, Niederbayern, Bayern, Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, fifty-one

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

13 December 2012.

From Munich, I’m on a day trip to Passau, known regionally as the Dreiflüssestadt (three rivers city). Passau is where the Inn river and Ilz river both merge with the Danube, before the latter flows into Austria and beyond. Mid-afternoon light and a recent dusting of snow casts a glow onto the buildings in the city’s Old Town. That’s some brilliant colour in this east view from the Marienbrücke bridge over the Inn.

I made the image on 13 Dec 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/500-sec, f/8, ISO200, 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-mKc.

My Vienna: Imperial Court Pavilion Hietzing (O. Wagner)

Above/featured: Facing east, a U4 train departs Hietzing station to terminus Heiligenstadt.

Along Vienna’s U4 metro line, a dark-domed white cube-like structure seems to float over the tracks between Schönbrunn and Hietzing stations. Most may not realize the building’s relevance to the history of the city’s first railway, the city’s rapid urban evolution into the 20th-century, and the railway architect’s eventual “break away” transition from historicism to modernism.

Vienna was going to look very different after 1890. The city undertook its second and greatest expansion, absorbing 6 outer districts and ballooning the total population to almost 1.4 million (almost doubled in 10 years). The city’s administration recognized the challenge of efficiently transporting people between its new outer suburbs and the inner city. In 1894, Vienna appointed architect Otto Wagner with the complete design and construction of the new Wiener Stadtbahn metropolitan railway. The railway saw the creation of four new lines: the Danube canal line (Donaukanallinie), the “Belt” line (Gürtellinie), the suburb line (Vorortlinie), and the Vienna river valley line (Wientallinie). Today, the city’s U-Bahn U4 and U6 lines and the S-Bahn S45 line operate electrified over much of the original routing.

The Vienna valley line brought track and construction in front of Schönbrunn, the imperial summer palace for the ruling Habsburgs. The rail line’s new Schönbrunn station was located at the northeast corner of the palace grounds. But at the grounds’ northwest corner, Wagner created two stations: one for the public, and one for the Habsburgs. Built for the inauguration of the city railway on 1 June 1898, the imperial pavilion was set aside for the emperor, family, and staff. Emperor Franz Josef I only used the pavilion twice, as he was reluctant (hostile) to accept rapid changes brought by modernity.

Wagner created a domed-building whose interior was furnished with floral and vegetal elements in the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) style, a painting with a bird’s eye view of the city over Schönbrunn, a private suite for the emperor; and whose exterior included the uniform green and white colours seen throughout the entire rail network, glass and wrought-iron elements, and a separate portal providing a covered entrance for the imperials. Out of the many station buildings Wagner designed for the entire system, the imperial pavilion at Hietzing is most associated with the “historical” architectural style. The building is now a part of the city’s Wien Museum after successful post-war efforts to save and restore the structure.

The informal name is the “Hofpavillon Hietzing” (Imperial Court Pavilion Hietzing), but the building’s formal name is “Pavillon des kaiserlichen und königlichen Allerhöchsten Hofes” (Pavilion of the Imperial and Royal Highest Court). In the images below are divided sections: “exterior”, “interior”, and “sketches”.

( Click here for images and more )

Dianatempel, Hofgartenarkaden, Hofgarten, München, Munich, Bavaria, Bayern, Oberbayern, Upper Bavaria, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, fifty

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

12 December 2012.

With fresh snow on the ground, a brilliant early-winter afternoon means time to bundle up and a stroll through Munich’s city centre. The scene is the Hofgarten, a 17th-century Renaissance imperial court garden. Near its centre is the Diana Temple, surrounded by the Hofgartenarkaden, a low-lying arcade framing the border of the garden. It’s cold outside, but that light is spectacular.

I made the image on 12 Dec 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/400-sec, f/8, ISO100, and 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-mK8.

Marathontor, Marathan Gate, Olympiastadion, Olympic Stadium, 1936 Summer Olympics, Berlin, Hauptstadt, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, forty-nine

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

5 December 2012.

This is the Marathon Gate at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, a glorious piece of architecture. But the cold intermittent wind travelling through an open empty stadium makes eerie sounds, as if to challenge the visitor with questions of “who, what, and why.”

Is sport neutral and separate from politics?

In 1934 Germany, the ruling National Socialists (Nazis) commissioned the construction of a giant stadium in Berlin. Werner March designed the structure which took two years to build in time for the 1936 Summer Olympics. At those games, Black American athletes including Jesse Owens participated with great success, but their paths to Berlin were met with hostility and filled with obstructions. American policies regarding black athlete participation were similar to prejudicial policies enacted by Nazis against the German Jewish people. In fact, American legal and racist precedents of the day provided early examples for the Nazis to create their own anti-semitic legislation: the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935.

“Sport as an ideal is not a force for positive social good. Sport is a neutral form. It needs positive underpinnings. And, it requires human beings [running it] to assume a sense of responsibility.”

– Sara Bloomfield, director of U.S. Holocaust Museum (1999–today).

I made the image above on 5 Dec 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/320-sec, f/8, ISO800, and 20mm focal length (32mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-mK4.

My Vienna: Armenian Mekhitarist Community (since 1810)

From outside, the buildings don’t look particularly special. But they tell a tale of extraordinary migration: beginning in Armenia and ending here in Vienna’s 7th district, by way of present-day Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

At the corner of Neustiftgasse and Mechitaristengasse is a set of buildings for the Armenian Mekhitarist Congregation.

If I’m in the city for a month, my curiosity demands to learn more. Through e-mail and by phone, I inquire with the monastery’s contact person about a visit, and I’m instructed to join a group of Americans for a guided tour.

Armenian Mekhitarists

The Mekhitarists are an order of Benedictine monks of the Armenian Catholic Church founded by Mekhitar Petrosean from Sebaste (now Sivas). Since 1810, the Mekhitarists established (a second) headquarters in Vienna, whose modern presence includes monastery, church, museum, and a library containing the world’s third largest collection of Armenian manuscripts.

Understanding the sustaining power of the printed word to a fragile culture, Mekhitar and the order’s monks created a complete dictionary of the Armenian language. The first volume of the “Dictionary of Classical Armenian Language” (ԲԱՌԳԻՐՔ ՀԱՅԿԱԶԵԱՆ ԼԵԶՈՒԻ) was published after his death in 1749, and the second volume appeared in 1769. In 1837, the New Dictionary of Classical Armenian Language was published, whose contents have now been digitized.

With my love of books since childhood, I’m regularly on the look for (sources of) old manuscripts, which is obvious in the images below.

By tour’s end, I have a few quiet minutes for a couple of questions.

Q1. How many Armenians are there in Austria?
A1. With a total population of almost 9 million, Austria is home to about 8000 Armenians, of which about 5000 live in Vienna.

Q2. Who was Deodat/Diodato?
A2. Diodato was an Armenian merchant whose birth name was Owanes Astouatzatur. He is credited with opening Vienna’s first licensed coffee house in 1685. Today, that location happens to be occupied by another café with a memorial plaque inside.

Mekhitarist Timeline

•   1701: Mekhitar of Sebaste (1676–1749) establishes congregation in Constantinople (now Istanbul).
•   1706: Move to Greece’s Methon; new monastery established.
•   1717: Move to San Lazzaro, one of Venice’s islands.
•   1773: 2nd group breaks away from Venice, establishing monastery in Trieste in the Habsburg empire.
•   1775: Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa’s “Privilege” guarantees Armenian colony with permanent status.
•   1805: Napoleon seizes Trieste as French territory; Trieste’s Mekhitarists flee to Vienna.
•   1810: Habsburg Emperor Franz I grants Triestine Mekhitarists permission to settle in Vienna.
•   1811: Mekhitarists establish presence in Vienna’s St. Ulrich.
•   1811–1873, 1889–1898: Book printing press by the Mekhitarists in Vienna.
•   1837: after 1835 fire, new construction designed by Josef Kornhäusel begins in Neubau.
•   1874: Site expansion includes new church, also by Kornhäusel.
•   2000: The Venice and Vienna chapters reunite into single Mekhitarist order.

( Click here for images and more )

Hinternentblösser, Münster, Minster, Cathedral, Freiburger Dom, Freiburg im Breisgau, Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, forty-eight

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

27 November 2012.

Commonly found along the rooftop of cathedrals are stone gargoyles which are sculptural water spouts funnelling water down from the roof and away from the sides of the building. In southwestern Germany’s Freiburg im Breisgau, the south side of the cathedral (Minster, Münster) includes a rather “cheeky” gargoyle, the “Hinternentblösser” (butt-flasher). At minimum scandalous and most definitely a very pointed comment, it’s frankly amazing to see this butt-tastic sculpture remain as cathedral ornamentation.

I made the image on 27 Nov 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/20-sec, f/5.6, ISO200, and 55mm focal length (88mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-mIl.

Monbijoubrücke, Museumsinsel, Fernsehturm, ThatTowerAgain, Berlin, Germany, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, forty-seven

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

16 November 2012.

For me, this familiar scene says a lot of “home”.

In this southeast view from Berlin’s Monbijou Bridge, lingering autumn fog and mist partly obscures city landmark Fernsehturm (Television Tower) in the background at left. Also visible are the Rotes Rathaus at centre-right and the imposing structure housing the Bode Museum on the Museum Island at right. Railway tracks cross the island, “squeezed” between the Bode Museum and the Pergamon Museum. A bright-red Deutsche Bahn regional train crosses over the Spree river from left to right (east to west) on its way to Friedrichstrasse station and beyond to Central Station.

I made the image on 16 Nov 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/125-sec, f/8, ISO800, and 42mm focal length (67mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-mIi.

%d bloggers like this: