Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place vs. home

Posts tagged ‘Lens Artists Photo Challenge’

Kohala Mountain Road, Mauna Loa, volcano, Big Island, Hawaii, USA, fotoeins.com

Previously, on the Big Island

Above/featured: Facing south to Mauna Loa, from Kohala Mountain Road – 20 May 2008 (450D).

I’ve already described memorable return visits to Berlin and Prague, and I wanted to end the trio of “previous” posts with something a little more wild and natural, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

In a previous life, my first visit to Hawaii and the Big Island occurred in 1999 after I had successfully applied for observing and research nights on the CFHT telescope near the Mauna Kea summit. Between 2006 and 2011, I worked at Gemini Observatory South in Chile, and I travelled occasionally to the Big Island for research meetings and consultations with colleagues at the offices of Gemini North. My last visit occurred in early-2012 at the outset of my year-long around the world journey.

The yearning to hop back across the great western pond is deeply imbedded with many memories; the following 10 images is as good a place to start.

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Tempelhofer Feld, Flughafen Tempelhof, THF, Tempelhof, Berlin, Hauptstadt, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Previously, in Berlin

Above/featured: Tempelhofer Feld: runway 09R/27L at former THF airport – 16 Oct 2017 (6D1).

I made the cross-country rail journey to Berlin for the first time in 2002 when I lived and worked in Heidelberg. In the years since, I’ve answered the siren’s frequent call by returning to Berlin multiple times. I’ve lost track of the precise count that’s north of 10, but less than 20.

Berlin is Germany’s capital city, but in many respects, the city isn’t very German at all. Berlin is an “internationally German place.” The enigmatic moody metropolis isn’t the prettiest and can be one of isolation, especially in autumn and winter. During a cold gloomy stretch in late-2012, I survived by accessing the diverse array of arts and culture events and venues. What is very familiar is how Berlin’s residents show up outside when sunshine returns.

The following 16 images in chronological sequence show a slow forward progression to a quiet contemplative observation of the city and her residents.

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Wellington waterfront, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Te Papa, Wellington, New Zealand, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa, fotoeins.com

10 Capital Cities

Above/featured: Waterfront and Te Papa: Wellington, New Zealand – 12 Oct 2010 (450D).

Two definitions for the noun “capital (city)” are:

1. the city or town functioning as the seat of government and administrative centre for country or region.
2. with modifier, a place associated more than any other with a specified activity or product; e.g., fashion capital of the world.

I’ll go with the first definition. With almost 70% of this planet’s land mass in the northern hemisphere, you’d be forgiven in subscribing to a selection bias for capital cities primarily north of the equator. I was born in the north, but I also spent a good chunk of the last two decades in the south; so, I’ve chosen here 5 capital cities in each of the northern and southern hemispheres.

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The mono in the chrome

Above/featured: “Interchange (after Harry Callahan).” Downtown Vancouver – 28 Jul 2016 (6D1).

“Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.”

– Eliott Erwitt

“I work in color sometimes, but I guess the images I most connect to, historically speaking, are in black and white. I see more in black and white – I like the abstraction of it.”

– Mary Ellen Mark

For me, the pull towards photography has always been about images in colour and landscape format to highlight a location, illuminate a historical event, or to feature a person who touched many lives. Thinking about and making images either square, in monochrome, or both have provided useful challenges to push the working dynamics of creativity. I hope the following images will get the viewer to ask if there’s more than what’s presented and to get possible answers on their own.

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