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My Prague: Olšany cemetery, search for Kafka & Palach

Above/featured: A quiet leafy avenue in Prague’s Olšany Cemetery.

I can’t spend all this time in the Czech capital city, and leave without paying any respects to two 20th-century personalities of Prague. Franz Kafka was an early 20th-century German-Czech writer (e.g., 1912 Die Verwandlung/Metamorphosis), whose writings became known to the world posthumously, thanks to friend and fellow writer Max Brod. In the 1960s, Jan Palach was an important historical figure of opposition who died in protest against the Communist regime.

I’m in the underground metro, heading east from the city centre towards Vinohrady and beyond to Olšany. The sun’s out on a crisp mid-autumn day, and while deciduous trees are left wanting for leaves, the latter have piled like carpets of colour on the cemetery grounds. I’m looking for the graves of Palach and Kafka who are buried in Olšanské hřbitovy (Olšany Cemetery) and Nový židovský hřbitov (New Jewish Cemetery), respectively.

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Seattle: 10 S-spots, free of charge

In thinking about things to do for free in Seattle, I thought about some of the city’s sights labelled with the letter ‘S’. There’s plenty of alliteration to follow.

I could have listed two obvious choices with the Space Needle and the Smith Tower. They are free to admire from the ground, but both require an admission charge to enter and reach the top of each respective structure for sweeping views of the city.

Here below are other arts and culture spots in Seattle that don’t cost a penny to visit or see; all locations are easily accessible with public transport.

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The Foto(eins) Journey, with Canon & Fujifilm

Above/featured: Winter morning at Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver – 22 Dec 2020 (X70).

Frankly, I don’t know why I waited so long.

For the longest time, I thought photography wasn’t for me. But the curiosity of making images would soon win me over.

My late-entry to photography means I have some regrets not having any images when I lived in Toronto and in Germany. After I moved to Minneapolis, I asked friends and colleagues for some advice, and by 2015, I purchased a compact Canon point-and-shoot camera. I pushed the limits of that camera, and I realized very quickly the kinds of images I wanted to make were beyond what the camera could manufacture. I needed greater flexibility and capability to adjust aperture- and exposure-values, and within three years, I moved “up” to a Canon camera with a crop sensor (450D).

I learned quickly I wanted a broader range of focal lengths, which led me to acquiring a couple of extra lenses. I pushed the 450D very hard, including my year-long around-the-world (RTW) journey in 2012. The shutter died the next summer in Prague, and with my investment of glass within the Canon camera-system, I moved “up” to a Canon camera with a full-frame sensor (6D1) in early 2014. With a larger sensor providing greater sensitivity to low-light, I feel the camera has furnished great images under a variety of conditions. But the 6D1 camera and complement of lenses can be bulky and heavy to carry around for an entire day, and I was feeling “burned out” by the camera-and-lens combination’s larger footprint and weight.

In early 2018, I pondered the idea of a more portable camera, and I decided on a lightly-used Fujifilm X70 mirrorless camera. I brought the 6D1 and the X70 on trips to Europe and the U.S. Southwest to experiment with both cameras, and to understand which device was ideally suited for different environments in different places. The 6D1 still has its place for what I want to photograph, but I discovered a different level of fun and versatility with the X70 with its light weight and small compact size. The X70 isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot easier to carry the X70 into the streets than with the 6D1.

I don’t know what happens next, but there are lots of possibilities for further projects in locations near and far.

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Dan Perjovschi, ZKM, Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medientechnologie, Center for Art and Media, Global Control and Censorship, Karlsruhe, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, fotoeins.com

Your emotional response to …

Above/featured: Drawings by Dan Perjovschi, 1995-2015. Globale Exhibition at ZKM Karlsruhe – 18 Nov 2015 (6D1).

I’ve had strong reactions to many pieces of art I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of seeing in a selection of museums and art galleries around the world. Here are some works of art which may provoke emotional reaction(s) from the viewer: sad, happy, angry; or perhaps, neutral. At each image, stop to a calm, pay attention to the details, and consider the caption provided.

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Vienna: Othmar Schimkowitz sculptures in the capital

Above/featured: Musenhaus (Muse House), Linke Wienzeile in Vienna – 18 May 2018.

Early 20th-century European artist Othmar Schimkowitz was one of many key figures in Vienna Modernism, an art movement which celebrated its centennial in 2018 in the Austrian capital city. Schimkowitz was born in Hungary and became well-known in Vienna for his architectural sculptures. In 1898, he joined the (Vienna) Secession, a group of artists which included Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt, Max Kurzweil, Carl Moll, Koloman Moser, and Joseph Maria Olbrich.

Sculptures by Schimkowitz are often seen in a variety of architectural creations by Otto Wagner. Here below are four Schimkowitz examples in Vienna; all are accessible with public transit from Wiener Linien (WL) transport authority.

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