A selection of images of Catholic Shrines in the northern alpine region of Italy, around Lago di Como. These are found on mountain paths and trails and in many cases are still actively maintained through a mixture of tradition, conservation, and ongoing superstition.
A photo essay contrasting mass tourism in Asturias and Cantabria against city life in the same region. This reflects the growing tensions between increasingly wealthy and mobile tourists and and increasingly impoverished local population that sees little benefit from the tourist industry.
There are few more poignant symbols of the problems in Barcelona than photographs taken around the newly redeveloped harbour area between Port Vell and Barceloneta. Here, tourists newly disembarked from cruise ships or disgorged from the flood of incoming flights to El Prat walk past rows and rows of “manteros” – illegal immigrants selling fake designer sunglasses, handbags, shoes, hats and numerous other dubious goods. In the background is an exclusive private marina where multi-millionaires dock their luxury yachts. The blankets (mantas) are usually linked to ropes attached at each corner, so […]
A selection of images from this years Pride march in Barcelona. The route this year was longer than in the past, running from Plaça España down the Parallel and then on to Moll de la Fusta in Port Vell where the concert stages and stalls were setup. The weather was cripplingly hot – but fortunately there were numerous people spraying water over themselves and everyone else in the crowd.
A short collection of abstract city-scape images, making use of reflections in glass. These were shot with the E-M5 and a 25mm (50mm equivalent) fast prime lens. Surprisingly, these are straight out-of-camera JPEG images. I try to shoot only in RAW, but after picking up the camera in a hurry it was left mis-configured. This very much limits the ability to correct white-balance and apply sensible levels of noise reduction… For counterbalance, there are also some corresponding darker images: Taken together, these pretty much summarise my feelings about Las Vegas: pretty […]
Metal statue portraying Darwin as a monkey. This is the mascot associated with the popular ‘Anís de Mono‘ – a version of the popular mediterranean liqueur that has been distilled at the seafront in Badalona for more than a century. The statue is gazing contentedly at a bottle of anís (shown below). I am unclear if this is intended as either statement for or against evolution. However, what it says about anís drinkers seems fairly clear!
The Stratford “ONE” student accommodation building, Westfield Avenue, Stratford. The amount of new building going on in Stratford is astonishing, and it very much follows the standard UK model of replacing older industrial units with expensive residential and shopping developments. Although somewhat architecturally controversial, I think that the building is more interesting for its implicit statement about British society.
Silhouette of St John’s Church, Hythe, constructed in the late 19th century. Amazingly, churches like this are still in active use. The much documented falls in UK church attendance seem more likely to be due to apathy and the emergence of less altruistic trends in British society – rather than an advancement in people’s willingness to think, reason and understand the world around them without recourse to superstition. Taken with the Leica M7, Zeiss C-Sonnar 50mm f1.5, some Kodak film that expired a decade ago (as opposed to the Fuji used previously), and a lot […]
A picture of part of the ceiling in the Barcelona’s opera house, the Gran Teatre del Liceu. The theatre was rebuilt in the late 1990’s following a fire that destroyed the original structure. The style is a kind of post-modern baroque in deep red and gold. I always half expect (or perhaps hope for) the orchestra to lead with the Muppet theme tune, or spot spider-man swinging from the roof. This was taken at an excellent performance of Norma in February. While the choice of production is often a little too traditional […]
Some photographs from today’s Lunar New Year parade in Barcelona. As usual, a good mix of costumes, drums and of course dragons. Not particularly great weather for the event – cold and with occasional rain. However, people seemed to be enjoying themselves nonetheless… As with most cultural things in Barcelona, everything gets a bit mixed up, so it seems some of the gegants (giants) and people from the correfoc (fire-run) had escaped and joined the march. I can understand the correfoc’s dragons, but I have no idea how the gegants’ fish and pigeon are connected to the parade… […]
Another year and another impossibly hot LGBT pride march here in Barcelona – the largest in the mediterranean area. Barcelona is remarkable not just for tolerance, but for its complete acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The pride march is an amazing mix of all kinds of people, from children to retirees and has an incredibly friendly atmosphere with people dressing up and dancing and generally having a lot of fun. More images in the gallery, below.
Transient Eye 