“Day and Night” (1880) are a pair of statues by sculptor Ludwig Brunow which decorated the upper portion of the main portal at Berlin’s Anhalter train station (Anhalter Bahnhof). These originals reside in Berlin’s German Museum of Technology (Deutsches Technikmuseum): the woman at left represents night, and the man at right represents day. The two sculptures presently at the facade remnant at Anhalter Bahnhof are replicas.
I made the image above on 23 May 2025 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and these settings: 1/30-sec, f/8, ISO3200, and 18.5/28mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-vG4.
I’m in Cologne on the 90th and penultimate travel day. Fortunately, I still have “room” for travel day 91 and Europe day 90: my last day within Schengen to allow for a timely departure. I didn’t need to stay in Frankfurt this time, because with ICE trains, I can go non-stop from Cologne to Frankfurt Airport in 70 minutes. But I will soon leave with another truckload of memories, thousands of images, and time well spent in places crucially important to me.
The 2025 numbers for 90 days:
Total distance walked: 746 km / 464 mi.
Total number of steps: 1.02 million.
Daily average distance walked: 8.3 km / 5.2 mi.
Daily average number of steps: 11347.
Rudolfplatz: transport junction for lines 1, 7, 12, 15; and bus routes 136, 146.
Dürener Strasse 199-203: there’s a dark-grey plaque at far-left and a “stumbling stone” or Stolperstein at lower-right.
Known for his series of turn-of-the-century portraits, photographer August Sander (1876-1964) lived and worked at Dürener Strasse 201 from 1911 to 1944. This memorial plaque is on the wall next to the entrance at Dürener Strasse 199-203. The August Sander photograph archives are located at the SK Stiftung Kultur in Cologne’s Mediapark.
Stumbling stone (Stolperstein) within the pavement in front of Dürener Strasse 199-203: Photographer and August Sander’s son, Erich, arrested for high treason in 1934; died age 40 on 23 March 1944 at the NS penitentiary in Siegburg.
Sander family grave at Melaten Cemetery.
Rudolfplatz: “BoConcept: (offering) one-on-one consultations on interior design.”
Of these great people in the frame, I’ve known two of them since 2002-2003. The setting that is the Latin American restaurant El Inca is a favourite. (Thanks to MW for the image.)
Last light of the day, facing northwest from Barbarossaplatz towards the Herz Jesu church (left-centre) near Zülpicher Platz.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 5 August 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
Some of my best friends in the country are in Cologne, as I’ve known them for almost 25 years. Back in 2002, I’d been introduced to the city’s big football team, as well as the Ehrenfeld district, to which I try and get back when I’m in town. (I tried to stop at Kebapland, but the 630pm queue was already crazy long, and I remember good alternatives in the near.)
To begin my walk west, I’m at the Innerer Grüngürtel (Inner Green Belt) Park, within sight of the Deutsche Telekom building, the 266-metre Colonius telecommunications tower, and the 102-metre Hercules high-rise from left to right, respectively.
I’ve gotta try to time my stay next time, so I can get a tour of the city’s central mosque. The place opened in September 2018.
“the wait was torture” // Magic Play
Opened in 1912, the Neptune Baths have been converted to a fitness and wellness facility since 2002.
Helios is a local landmark in Ehrenfeld.
That’s not a real maritime lighthouse; it’s a structure marking the location of a big factory that once manufactured electrical equipment including maritime lights. I wrote a short blurb about Helios here.
Kölsch Bloot (Cologne blood) is a clothing company based in Ehrenfeld, which explains the Helios structure, the city’s coat of arms, and the silhouette of the city’s cathedral.
A 2nd-ad in the Veedel for Netflix and the upcoming 2nd season of “Wednesday”. That queue for Kebapland at lower- right is too long for my state of “hungry.
This, is Ehrenfeld.
This little tiled piece represents the logo for football team 1. FC Köln. It’s not obvious, but plain as day for fans and for those who know.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 4 August 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
The sculpture provided the introduction three years ago. Two clasped hands, each as tall as a person. Each hand made of 1-million 1-Eurocent coins. Seen in 2022, next to St. Stephan’s Cathedral. Seen next in 2023, the sculpture moved near the big fountain at Schwarzenbergplatz. A wonderful crowdfunded project, created by Austrian artist Julia Bugram.
This past spring, I receive a kind invitation to visit her studio. It’s July and I’m in Vienna’s 5th district. I make my way up to the 2nd floor of an “Altbau”, and arrive at a cozy working art-space shared between Julia and another artist.
Julia is presently exploring themes surrounding community and society; and how art can create, enhance, and strengthen connections among people. Artistic influences include: Hilma af Klimt, Mela Diamant, Renate Bertlmann, Margot Pilz, Jakob Lena Knebl, Martha Jungwirth. Her “Raising Hands” sculpture is presently in storage, waiting for new benefactors and fresh eyes.
We spoke at some length about the economic and cultural challenges contemporary Austrian artists face in the creation and distribution of their work, as well as the difficulty of commuting between Vienna and her home in Burgenland. Despite challenges, I’m looking forward to seeing what she’ll create in the near future.
Working art space shared by Julia Bugram and Elisabeth Hansa. (I’ve greyed out their contact numbers.)
Julia’s recent book with images of her recent art pieces, including extensive discussion and the context of her work: “Widerstand & Neugierde: Kunst, die Veränderung fordert.” (Resistance & Curiosity: art that demands change).
Back cover.
Most who directly supported the publishing her book are from Vienna, other parts of Austria, and Europe.
Her triptych creation, “Fut – Mut – Wut”, presented here in alphabetical order with carefully selected wallpaper-like background motifs. Three words of equal length that rhyme, each word an expression of an essential facet or dimension for a woman.
Defiance and empowerment, body autonomy, questioning the gaze, control of their own narratives.
Many of the pieces on the wall include sketches of plants, emphasizing her desire to commune with and derive inspiration from nature.
My thanks to Julia for her invitation and her time. I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 11 July 2025. I received neither support nor compensation for this piece. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
Austrian artist Brigitte Kowanz (1957-2022) long held a fascination for light. Light isn’t simply the medium through which information propagates; rather, light itself is the tool and the mould for illumination, reflection, and even introspection. There’s a definite spirit of fun and “lightness” when she matches her fondness for Morse code with illumination sources.
In my view, there’s something in her light-based artworks which allude not only to her philosophy and worldview, but also, happily for me, to her clear interest for science. Her works also anticipate and explore timely themes including what it means to live in an information-rich society that fully embraces digital habitats and virtual spaces.
She’s quoted as saying (2017):
“Licht ist expansiv und flüchtig, es bleibt nie bei sich – Licht ist eine Lebensmetapher.”
(Light is expansive and elusive, it never remains the same – light is a metaphor for life.)
I discovered her work for the first time in 2018 on the roof of the Leopold Museum in Vienna’s MuseumQuartier. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to come across more of her artwork installed throughout the city.
The Brigitte Kowanz retrospective, “Light is what we see”, is now on display at the Albertina from 18 July to 9 November 2025. In part, I arranged my 2025 time in Vienna to coincide with the final run of the Francesca Woodman exhibition *and* the start of the Brigitte Kowanz exhibition.
“Alphabet”, 1998/2010: neon, mirror. Letters A (right-centre) through Z are represented clockwise with each letter as illuminated Morse code. I may be out of the “game”, but this looks a lot like an accretion disk surrounding an astrophysical “black hole”.
“Echo Hall Flow Nein”, 2003/04: neon, mirror. Each word appears vertically, consecutively from left to right. The large number of internal reflections is another hallmark of her work, always asking the viewer to determine the placement of the original source.
“Morse Alphabet”, 1998: fluorescent tubes, plexiglass tubes, enamel paint. Each radial spoke contains a letter of the alphabet in illuminated Morse code. “A” begins at the top at around 12:02, moving clockwise to “Z” at 11:58.
An example of one of her infinity boxes. “Rund um die Uhr” (around the clock), 2011: neon, mirror. The image is partly corrected for geometric distortion.
“asap omw imo tbh bif afaik irl idc idk iow hth fyi omg”, 2021: neon, aluminum, enamel paint. I had to look up a couple of these in the urban dictionary. NGL, but I feel old.
“Forward”, 2005: neon, stainless steel, enamel paint. Each letter is represented in Morse code by a vertical panel with an illuminated tube; “r” 3rd from the left & 2nd from the right.
One room in the exhibition area.
“Speed of Light sec/4m”, 1989/2007: neon, chrome steel. “0,000000013342563 second” (1.33E-8 sec or 13.3 nanoseconds) is the time required for light to travel 4 metres, which appears to be the actual length of this sculpture.
“light is what we see”, 1994/2019: glow lamps, power strips, plexiglass, stainless steel.
“Signature” (Kowanz), 2015: neon, mirror. That’s my bulbous head in the reflection.
I received neither support nor compensation for the present piece. I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 23 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
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