Monthly Archives: December 2016
144. PASSAGES. Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Christopher Columbus “sighted” this island in 1493. The photo has an odd look, more like a studio setup with a fake background than an extemporanious landscape. Speaking of which, for some of the best studio-for-outdoors shots, take a look at Fellini’s La Dolce Vita for the scenes on (an entirely constructed) Via Veneto. The word iconic is thrown around a lot these days, but Anouk Aimee and Marcello Mastroianni in black and white at Cinecitta? Spettacolare.
143. PASSAGES. Quintana Roo, Mexico. Who says digital cameras can’t render like analog? Taken on a cheap DSLR with a plastic lens. The image would have lost something with better equipment. What did that Canadian Marshall Mcluhen say? The medium is the message?
142. PASSAGES. Bailiwick of Jersey, Channel Islands. Nothing located in the frigid and rainy English Channel could resemble the pacific climate of the Mediterranean, but some glimpses of Jersey put one in mind of Monaco. They are both famous European tax havens. Who’s counting, but the yachts are far bigger on the Cote d’Azur.
141. PASSAGES. Bailiwick of Jersey, Channel Islands. One of a group of islands off the coast of Normandy. Not quite English, not quite French, modern but with traces of old world European charm. It is one of the worlds “leading offshore financial centers”. Its climate is far more temperate than what you would expect in the English Channel.
140. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Midtown East. UN protests and heavy auto traffic are common in East Midtown. Recently published figures: 731,000 automobiles enter Manhattan below 60th street daily; it takes 40 minutes to drive the (two mile) width of Manhattan at rush hour; the average auto travels at 8.2 MPH in Manhattan (only 2.5 times average human walking speed); and it costs three to five thousand dollars per annum to rent parking in Midtown. A native Manhattanite I know calls it the Midwestern Diet: people move here, ditch the ride, and the walking loses them ten pounds in the first month.
139. TRAVELS IN INDIA. Kamathipura, Mumbai. A mundane scene, but it contains a lot of India. Cows and carters, which you see everywhere, but take a look at the narrow workshop in the background. All over India you will see people working in these tiny spaces. Welders, shoemakers, carpenters, machinists, tailors–you name it. Kamathipura has hundreds of them, making for a lot of noise and activity. Kama is also a famous red light district, and the ladies often set up right next to the workshops. Of course Indians are completely unfazed by this rather odd juxtaposition.