In Madrid, Seattle and Tel Aviv, here are three examples where the people are as constructed as the buildings they adorn.
All images composed by the author. Click on each image for more detail. © 2009-2013 myurbanist. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy.
Here is one more of my eleven favorite night city photographs from 2011 and 2012 that will hang for the month of February at Cafe Verite’s Madrona location in Seattle. An earlier post summarizes my theme, which focuses on “meetings” of light, people and the built environment.
Three of the photographs will also appear in my upcoming book, Urbanism Without Effort, (Island Press, 2013). One is the likely cover photo.
For Seattle locals (or if you will be visiting), stay tuned for notice of a small gathering during the month. Mini-cupcakes will add to the ambience my several snapshots of the 24 hour city.
All images composed by the author in Vancouver, British Columbia. Click on image for more detail. © 2009-2013 myurbanist. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy.
I find that often, an excess of verbiage in a blog post detracts from an urban image. In cases where a natural setting blends with the built environment, the best summation is within the reader’s review and contemplation.
So, I will offer just one observation: Even without a devastating storm, our structures are easily overshadowed by daily expressions of climate nearby.
Image composed by the author. Click on image for more detail. © 2009-2013 myurbanist. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy.
Welcome to a new orientation towards city ruins—where Photoshop and urbanism have something in common—as shown in the accompanying image of the archaeological site of Pompeii.
First, the original photograph blends with four Photoshop “adjustment layers”, including monochrome and sepia versions of a formerly all-color background.
Second, as a result, modern visitors show a more contrasting, layered hue against an excavated Roman street scene, over 2000 years after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
Ironically, the Photoshop and urbanist layering combine to suggest a pedestrian-oriented, narrower right of way, often championed today, centuries after Pompeii’s demise.
Amid the partially restored grid of a celebrated ruin, the human scale transcends time. Ancient and modern intermingle in a way that words alone cannot describe.
Image composed and manipulated in Adobe Photoshop (Version CS5) by the author. To further explore Pompeii by Google Street View, click here.
The last week of the year is typically reserved for retrospective, and “best of” assessments. Yet, it can also be a time of hope, resolution, and prediction—an interlude of oracles and dreams.
Picture this about 2012—an urbanist calendar with places in mind—framed by international snapshots in time.
Each month of this urbanist calendar could echo experience, and provoke optimism through depiction of people and place.
Here is my composition, and perspective, from Seattle and beyond.
All images composed by the author. Click on each image for more detail.