Urban Photography | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts from the ‘Urban Photography’ category

Stuttgart’s Gerda Taro

Travel day 76, Euro day 75.

I’m in Stuttgart for a few days, and I rediscover photographer Gerda Taro was born in the city. I’d already read some history of photography, including the Spanish Civil War and Gerda Taro as the first woman to photograph and publish images about open conflict. I’ve gone looking for some traces in the city of her birth, as a quick and spontaneous mini-project in the midst of 90 consecutive days in Europe.

Memorial, near Olgaeck

Near the bus and tram stop Olgaeck is Gerda Taro Plaza, in memory of the young woman photographer who was born “Gerta Pohorylle” in Stuttgart and who once lived with her family in the area. At the plaza is a 2014 memorial dedicated to Taro; the text on all nine panels is entirely in German.

*Named for photographer Gerda Taro (1910-1937), the plaza was unveiled by the city in 2008, and redesigned in 2014 with the installation of the memorial.*

*“O”. Gerda Taro, a pioneer in war photography.*

*“R”*. *The 1920s: Jazz, Theater, and the Stuttgart Kickers.*

*“A”*. *Leipzig: distributing leaflets against Hitler.*

*“T”. Exile in Paris: meeting André Friedmann, and the creation of Gerda Taro and Robert Capa. There is no Capa without Taro.*

*“A”. The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939.*

*“D”. Barricades, armed women, equitable distribution of land.*

*“R”. The camera as witness: misery and terror from bombs.*

*“E”. Getting up close, for the world at large.*

“G”. The first woman war-photographer killed on location. Documenting Spain’s civil war with her camera, Gerda Taro was accidentally run over by a tank and died from her injuries in a hospital near Madrid on 26 July 1937. She was buried in a marked grave in Paris’ Cimetière du Père-Lachaise.

*Republican militia women training on the beach outside Barcelona, Spain: photo by Gerda Taro, August 1936. Provided by Ur Cameras on Flickr via Creative Commons.*

Family home

Not far from Gerda-Taro-Plaza, I found the Pohorylle family’s former home, based on this poignant essay. I didn’t see any Gedenktafel (memorial plaque) or any Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) in the pavement, at or in front of either building 170 or 170A. In 1929, when Gerta was 19 years old, the Pohorylle family moved from Stuttgart to Leipzig.

*Obstructed view of the former Pohorylle family house (in light orange), as seen from passage off Cottastrasse.*

*Gate to path access for building address Alexanderstrasse 170A.*

*Former Pohorylle family house, at Alexanderstrasse 170A.*

Taro, short bio

Born Gerta Pohorylle, 1910 in Stuttgart, Germany; died 1937 in El Escorial, Spain.

“… Studied in Leipzig starting in 1929. Emigrated to Paris in 1933. In 1935 began working with the photographer André Friedmann, later known as Robert Capa. In 1935-1936 worked for the Alliance Photo Agency. Shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in the summer of 1936, she and Capa went to Spain; other photography assignments in Spain followed in early 1937. She was fatally wounded at the Brunete front in July 1937 and was the first female war correspondent killed in action.”

Source: “Women War Photographers: from Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus” (Munich: Prestel, 2019), p. 218.

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 22 Jul 2024. I received no support from an external organization. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

Sapperton: gatehouse & monument cairn

New Westminster

Within New Westminster’s Sapperton residential area at 319 Governors Court is the Gatehouse building of the former British Columbia Penitentiary (1878-1980); happily, the site is now home to a pub with patio. At the right edge of the picture below, the massive tower under construction is for the new Pattullo Bridge.

*In front of the gatehouse is this 1927 Govt. of Canada* 🇨🇦 *commemorative cairn in honour of the Royal Engineers (“Sappers”).*

“In 1859 military considerations induced Colonel Richard Moody* to select the site of New Westminster as capital of the new colony of British Columbia. Jointly developed until 1863 by civilians and the Royal Engineers, whose campground was here, the town, dominated by its Canadian^ middle-class, tried to challenge Victoria’s commercial and political power. Hopes rose when New Westminster became the seat of government after the colony’s union with Vancouver Island in 1866, but fell with the removal of the capital to Victoria in 1868. Consequently, union with Canada was advocated to solve the town’s fiscal problems.”

* after whom city of Port Moody is named

^ white British Empire colonists

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 17 April 2024. Composed entirely within Jetpack for iOS, this post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-sjR.

Vienna: Heinrich Ferstel’s architectural legacy

Above/featured: Entrance into the Ferstel Passage (Ferstelpalais, Herrengasse 14). Photo, 2 Jun 2023 (X70).

The following structures in the city of Vienna share something (and someone) in common:

• Café Central,
• the University of Vienna,
• Votive Church, and
• the Museum for Applied Arts.

These buildings were all designed by Viennese architect Heinrich Ferstel. His architectural works left a deep and lasting impression on the city and her residents. What follows is a brief life summary and highlights from a number of his projects.

• born/✵ 7 Jul 1828 – died/✟ 14 Jul 1883.
• One of many architects contributing to the development of Vienna’s “Ringstrasse.”
• 1843–1847: student at Imperial & Royal Polytechnic Institute.
• 1850: completed studies at Architekturschule der Akademie der bildenden Künste (Architectural School, Academy of Fine Arts) under Carl Rösner, Eduard van der Nüll, August Sicard von Sicardsburg.
• 1866: appointed Professor of Architecture at Polytechnic Institute; subsequently, dean 1866–1870; rector 1880–1881 after institute became the Technical University in 1872.
• 1872: founded the Cottageverein (Cottage Association) for the construction of English-style family homes in the Währing district.

… Prolific Austrian architect. He (Ferstel) designed the twin-towered Gothic Revival Votivkirche (1856–1882) and various other Historicist buildings, including the vast Italian Renaissance Revival University (1873–1884) in Vienna. Much of his important work (where the influence of Semper is often clear) was done for the area adjoining the Ringstrasse, but he also designed many buildings throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. An advocate of housing reform, he admired English low-density developments, which influenced the Cottageverein (Cottage Association), Vienna (1872–1874), responsible for building small single-family houses. Ferstel also promoted the laying out of the Türkenschanzpark, a public park on English lines (from 1883) …

— from “A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture”

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My Fuji X70: Kodak Color Negative (XTrans2 recipe)

Above/featured: Taunusanlage train station, Frankfurt am Main – 18 Jun 2023.

The Fujifilm X70 mirrorless fixed-lens prime camera has added a lot to my approach to photography for projects in domestic and international scope. To satisfy my curiosity about Fujifilm’s analog-film simulation (film-sim) recipes, I’ve provided examples of X70 images with the following recipes:

• CineStill 800T
• Ektachrome 100SW (saturated warm)
• Fujichrome Slide
• Kodachrome 64
• Kodacolor
• Kodak Platinum 200
• Monochrome Red

Here I show images made with the “Kodak Color Negative” recipe, which Ritchie Roesch describes in Fuji X Weekly:

… The aesthetic that I was hoping to achieve with this recipe was Kodak Portra 400. I don’t believe that I succeeded in faithfully mimicking that (sometimes there’s a similarity); however, it does seem to produce a Kodak-like color negative film look, perhaps more like Ultramax, but not exactly that, either. Whatever it does or doesn’t resemble, I personally really like the aesthetic produced by this recipe …

The recipe is for X-Trans II sensors and the built-in availability of “Classic Chrome”. The settings on my X70 are:

“Classic Chrome” built-in film-sim
Dynamic Range: DR200
Color: +2 (High)
Sharpness: -1 (Medium-Soft)
Highlight: -2 (Soft)
Shadow: -1 (Medium-Soft)
Noise Reduction: -2 (Low)
White Balance: Incandescent; +6 Red, -7 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to 3200

I assigned this recipe for my “indoor” setting as 1 of the 7 camera’s custom presets, but the recipe’s versatility allowed for additional tests at outside locations. The following JPG images are “almost” straight-out-of-the-camera: only minor adjustments to brightness level and a crop to a predefined image size have been applied, with no corrections to colour, contrast, geometric distortion, or rotation. The blue (“cool”) colour-cast is very real, which is especially evident on images made outdoors under sunny conditions.

( Click here for images )

Vienna Ringstrasse & Architectural Historicism

Above/featured: Examples of the “Ringstraßenstil” historicism style at Maria Theresa Square, with Maria Theresa Monument at left and the Museum of Natural History at right. Photo, 15 May 2022 (X70).

• Can a street alone define its surrounding architecture?
• Do the buildings themselves establish the street’s visual impression?
• Is Vienna (un)fairly defined by the Ringstrasse and the inner city?

The answers, as always, are a little complicated.

Like many, I’m also fond of Vienna’s Ringstrasse (Ring Road), as a kind of “hello” and re-introduction to the city after my first visit in 2002. At 5 kilometres in length, the Ringstrasse is one of the longest streets in Europe, longer than the nearly 2-km Champs-Élysées in Paris and longer than the 4.5-km Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. The boulevard is surrounded by Prachtbauten (buildings of splendour), constructed in the architectural style of “historicism,” a big nod to classic “forms” reflecting structural “functions”. The late-19th century “Ringstrassenstil” (Ring Road architectural style) continued the practiced habit of choosing a historical style which best identified with the purpose of the building. For example, the Neo-Baroque architectural style is represented in the Civic Theater; the Neo-Classical style in the Parliament and New Palace; the Neo-Gothic style in City Hall and the Votive Church; and the Neo-Renaissance style in the museums, palatial mansions, Opera House, and the University.

On Christmas Day 1857, the Wiener Zeitung newspaper published an imperial decree written 5 days earlier (on 20 December) by Habsburg emperor Franz Joseph I. He ordered the demolition of the inner-city wall and the subsequent creation of a circular boulevard, bordered by grand buildings and filled with green spaces. The large outward extension of the inner city changed and influenced the urban development of Vienna, still seen to this very day.

It is my will that the extension of the inner city of Vienna should proceed as soon as possible, providing for appropriate connections between the city and the suburbs as well as the embellishment of my imperial residence and capital. To this end, I authorise the removal of the walls and fortifications of the inner city as well as the ditches around it …

– Emperor Franz Joseph I: 20 Dec 1857, published 25 Dec 1857.

On 1 May 1865, Emperor Franz Josef unveiled the Ringstrasse in an official ceremony, even though large areas remained under construction. Ringstrasse structures included the religious and the secular, as well as the public and the private. The Ringstrasse symbolized the power of the imperial state, and the growth of a new arts and culture scene with the increasing popularity of coffee houses.

It’s also important to note the architectural impact made by the Jewish middle- and upper-class to integrate within the Habsburg empire. For example, the families Ephrussi, Epstein, and Todesco commissioned architect Theophil Hansen to construct palatial mansions as visible manifestations and partial realization of the dream of many Viennese Jews: assimilation into and emancipation within Viennese society. (Viennese journalist and political activist Theodor Herzl might have had a different opinion about that.)

For residents and long-term visitors today, it’s entirely possible to fit into the unintended shape and mentality of the “modern” city: that the inner-city wall was simply replaced by a different wall of “economic class”, that the architectural callback to historicism “freezes” the inner-city in time, and that like many, I can live, traverse, and work in the outer districts and avoid entering the inner city.

For short-term visitors today, the Ringstrasse buildings form a golden shiny “ring” around the “fingers” of the U1 and U3 metro lines traversing through the UNESCO World Heritage inscribed inner-city. For these visitors, all that’s needed for their limited time in Vienna is the inner city.

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