Europe in Pictures
View allAll Photos Tagged Philosophical
I mentioned yesterday the philosophical importance of seeing the world as a subject in relation to us. The camera becomes an extension of our body. Here is an example. I was taking some farm photographs when this beautiful creature came right up to me.
[Make sure you enlarge its beautiful face.]
Japanese gardens are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden designers to suggest an ancient and faraway natural landscape, and to express the fragility of existence as well as time's unstoppable advance. Ancient Japanese art inspired past garden designers. By the Edo period, the Japanese garden had its own distinct appearance.
The Auburn Botanic Gardens are a botanical garden located in Auburn (a suburb of Sydney), New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1977 and covers an area of 9.7 hectares. There are two lakes, a waterfall and bridges. Duck River winds through the garden. The garden is maintained by Cumberland Council. It is open daily, and there is a small entry fee on weekends. The Japanese gardens, which have hosted couples from overseas, are one of the main attractions. 12554
Why do we find it so important to measure the passage of time? Can we not just appreciate the time that we have? See the beauty and enjoy the goodness that lies in the moment as we live it and stop living by clocks and calenders and we may all have more time to enjoy.
Philosophical reconstruction by Franco Raggi in 2006 for Attese Edizioni. As seen at the Ceramics Museum in Savona, Italy.
It's all here, the light and dark side of life, of us. The bud, stands for potential. The petals, protection or a cage? Tell me more little flower.
The Philosophical Hall at the Strahov Monastery, Prague, Czechia (the Czech Republic's official short name as of 2016)
(unless you made and paid for a reservation months beforehand, you are not allowed inside and can only admire the room from the doorway; photos can be taken only if you pay extra for a photo permit; best viewed enlarged for details)
Abbot Vaclav Mayer, during the last quarter of the 18th century, decided to build new library premises for the numerous acquisitions so he ordered the Philosophical Hall to be built by the naturalized Italian architect Johann Ignaz Palliardi. The hall is 32 meters long, 10 meters wide and 14 meters high, flanked on all sides by rich walnut wood bookcases. The highest shelves are only accessible from the gallery which is accessed by secret spiral staircases in both corners, masked by false book covers.
The ceiling was painted by Viennese artist Anton Maulbertsch over a period of 6 months, aided by only one assistant. The painting called The Spiritual Development of Mankind depicts the development of religion and science, guided by Divine Providence in the center of the painting, surrounded by virtues.
In the 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte's wife Marie Louise visited the library and donated a four-volume work on Louvre museum paintings and Versailles gardens. The gift was stored in the tall bookcase that dominates the left side of the hall. On the top of the bookcase, there is a marble bust of Francis I, Emperor of Austria and Marie Louise's father.
The total number of volumes in the hall exceeds 50,000 works. In 2010, the Philosophical Hall was completely restored.
A philosophical and impressionnist photo safari concentrated mainly on a daily basis (or almost) on my small piece of planet of 55 000 square feet …!!!
A Thoreau "waldennienne" approach …!!!
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Un safari photo philosophique et impressioniste au quotidien concentré essentiellement (ou presque) sur un petit morceau de planète de 55 000 pieds carrés ...!!!
Une démarche "waldennienne" à la Thoreau …!!!
Philosophical Musings
Democracy is won in the hearts. The minds just argue :)
Humanism and human rights (human dignity is inviolable) take precedence over racist categorizations and national interests.
Nationalism is a narrow-minded mindset that seeks to prevent people from looking beyond their own horizons.
It’s about your children.
"The Earth is One.
Love Against Fascism
“If you can sit on it, they will come”
HBM Chat #11
Neighbor: “Hi Neighbor!”
Wife: “Hi Neighbor, how are you?”
Neighbor: “I’m good. I have a question though.”
Wife: “Sure, go ahead.”
Neighbor: “I know Steve is trying to be an internet influencer and bring more popularity to the world of benches. But I have to admit I didn’t understand Steve’s Happy Bench Monday post today.”
Wife: “What didn’t you understand?”
Neighbor: “I mean, it’s not even a real bench!”
Wife: “Oooof! Don’t say that to Steve!”
Neighbor: “Why not? It’s only a big flat rock next to a steep path that just happens to be the right height for sitting.”
Wife: “Yeh, that was in Arches National Monument in Utah, and he sat on it for a loooong time before we resumed the hike. In his mind that makes it a bench.”
Neighbor: “I admit it functions like a bench – but does that actually make it a bench?”
Wife: “You do NOT want to get him started on bench Zen!”
Neighbor: “What??”
Wife: “I’m just warning you. Do not question the reality of benches. He is prepared.”
Neighbor: “Sounds like he’s gone off the deep end and wants to be a some charismatic bench cult leader more than a bench influencer.”
Wife: “He’s more convincing than you might think.”
Neighbor:: “What did he say?”
Wife: “He quoted Adam Grant, who said ‘We don’t see things as they are – we see them as we expect them to be.’”
Neighbor: “Grant Schmant…”
Wife: “George Lucas said, ‘Always remember, your focus determines your reality.’”
Neighbor: “The ‘Star Wars’ guy?”
Wife: “Then he hit me with Plato who said, ‘The world is a shadow of the true reality that is the world of forms.’”
Neighbor: “Plato never said a rock is a bench!”
Wife: “He concluded with Einstein who said, ‘Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.’"
Neighbor: “I think it’s just a lot of mumbo-jumbo so Steve could justify sneaking a nice scenic panorama into a bench-only photo group.”
Wife: “That’s not beyond him, and I did question that.”
Neighbor: “So what did he answer?”
Wife: “He said, ‘I sit, therefore I am…on a bench.’ HBM!”
"Many of us seem to carry time, all its weight,
into the present, see it not, call it our fate…”
-- William J. Jr. Atfield
IILICIT GLIMPSE the April/May 2026 exhibition @ the Annex of Nitroglobus
Philosophical Spine of the exhibition
In Ilicit Glimpse, visibility isn’t passive or total; it is something I shape with intention. In a world that constantly floods us with images, I treat privacy as both power and practice, revealing only what I choose, when I choose it. What is unseen is not empty space; it carries meaning, where imagination, curiosity, and desire meet restraint. Mystery is not absence; it is allure, subtle and deliberate, resisting anything predictable or obvious.
This work questions how often sensuality is overplayed, expected, and consumed in art. Sensuality is still present, part of being human, part of being a woman, but it is not treated as spectacle. Instead, I let presence, gesture, and shadow carry intention, story, and quiet confidence. What I choose not to show matters just as much as what I do show. Even the viewer’s gaze shifts here; it becomes less about simple looking and more about a quiet negotiation with distance, discretion, and the work itself.
I hope it captivates you.
Opening party:
📅 Monday, 20 April 2026
🕛 12 PM SLT / 21:00 CET
🎵 Music by DJ NOIR
Taxi: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunshine%20Homestead/165/4...
My heartfelt thanks to Dido Haas for inviting me and welcoming me into her amazing gallery.
Half a bee, philosophically, must ipso facto half not be. But half the bee has got to be, vis-à-vis its entity – d'you see? But can a bee be said to be or not to be an entire bee when half the bee is not a bee, due to some ancient injury?"
Gallery of Novobirzhevoy Gostiny Dvor (1800-1815 years, architect Giacomo Antonio Domenico Quarenghi). Philosophy Faculty of St. Petersburg State University (in the building since 1934). Vasilevsky Island. St. Petersburg. December 3, 2016.
Галерея Новобиржевого Гостиного двора (1800 - 1815 годы, архитектор Джакомо Кваренги). Философский факультет Санкт-Петербургского государственного университета (в этом здании с 1934 года). Васильевский остров. Санкт-Петербург. 3 декабря 2016 года.
Canon EOS 600D,
Samyang 8mm f/3.5 AS IF UMC Fish-eye CS II.
Here you see a three-dimensional artwork by Jaume Plensa, who can describe and explain his artworks with philosophical eloquence...
Among other things, it’s about appearances being deceiving and openness toward all people, no matter what they look like or where they come from—and, of course, that you can only truly see with your soul. Thus, his artworks often consist of wire or letters and numbers—all the characters from around the world.
When he displays several “human sculptures,” they are all from different parts of the world; one might look Asian, one European, and one African.
Das Museum Küppersmühle in Duisburg präsentiert die bislang umfassendste Einzelausstellung des renommierten spanischen Bildhauers Jaume Plensa. Zum ersten Mal seit einem Jahrzehnt widmet ihm ein deutsches Museum eine derartige Schau. In der Ausstellung erwarten die Besucher über 50 beeindruckende Skulpturen, eine Auswahl seiner Papierarbeiten sowie eigens für das Museum Küppersmühle geschaffene Wandzeichnungen – eine einzigartige Begegnung mit Plensas kraftvoller poetischer Kunst.
„Meine Arbeit will immer Brücken bauen, Fragen stellen, Schönheit in den Alltag der Menschen bringen; Verbindungen zwischen Menschen schaffen, ohne dass Hautfarbe, Ideologie, Religion oder Geographie eine Rolle spielen.“
Plensa ist international bekannt für seine eindrucksvollen Arbeiten im Öffentlichen Raum, die er seit über 20 Jahren in allen Kontinenten der Welt präsentiert hat. Herausragend war sein Projekt „Secret Garden“ im Sommer 2025 anlässlich der Salzburger Festspiele auf dem Residenzplatz der Stadt. In Deutschland hat er Großskulpturen in Bonn-Bad Godesberg („Laurelle am Bahnhof“, 2024), Frankfurt am Main („Body of Knowledge“, 2010) und Potsdam („Gläserne Seele“, 2000) realisiert. Er ist einer der bedeutendsten universellen Künstler unserer Zeit.
Die Ausstellung im Museum Küppersmühle präsentiert eine große Skulptur im Eingangsbereich des Hauses – „Flora“, 2021 – sowie eine spektakuläre Installation im Siloraum – „Invisible Anna“, 2018: ein großer, transparenter Kopf aus Edelstahlstäben, dessen erhabene Ausstrahlung den Raum beherrscht.
In acht weiteren Räumen wird die formale und inhaltliche Bandbreite der Werke von Jaume Plensa mit Arbeiten aus verschiedensten Materialien anschaulich. Der Künstler arbeitet mit Marmor, Alabaster, Kunststoff, Bronze- und Eisenguss sowie Stahl in verschiedenen Maßstäben.
Anlässlich der Ausstellung erscheint eine außergewöhnliche Publikation im Großformat mit Ausstellungsansichten, einem Interview von Walter Smerling mit dem Künstler und einem Essay von Clemens Setz.
Plensas Werke sind rätselhaft und inspirierend zugleich. Sie laden zur Kontemplation über uns selbst, über Schönheit und Erhabenheit ein. Der Schriftsteller Clemens Setz schliesst seinen Essay für die Publikation zu dieser Ausstellung mit einer konzisen Beobachtung:
„Vor ihnen stehend, bleiben wir allein mit uns selbst, und das nicht eingeschüchtert oder unerfüllt, sondern beschenkt und eigentümlich erhöht.“
Das von Herzog - de Meuron entworfene Museum lässt diese Kuration zu, da die ehemalige Mühle mehrere zusammengefasste Silos hat, die das architekturbüro zu einem hohen Raum als Bindeglied zwischen den Museumsteilen in voller Höhe nach unten öffnete.
Die Skulptur steckt ihren Kopf somit in die Silos wo vielleicht früher verschiedene Getreidesorten/Lebensmittel/"Rohstoffe" gelagert gelagert wurden, um auf die besten Wetten im Derivatenhandel zu warten.
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A philosophical and impressionnist photo safari concentrated mainly on a daily basis (or almost) on my small piece of planet of 55 000 square feet …!!!
A Thoreau "waldennienne" approach …!!!
__________________________
Un safari photo philosophique et impressioniste au quotidien concentré essentiellement (ou presque) sur un petit morceau de planète de 55 000 pieds carrés ...!!!
Une démarche "waldennienne" à la Thoreau …!!!
Philosophical morning.
(A vida é unha cuestión de tons. Aproveitemos para tentar de desenvolvelos. Dende a nosa dotación xenética 🙈 e antes de que se produza a morte 😎)
Number 2 in an ongoing series themed on the idea of "strange attractors" central states that have a pull on the past and present toward which events move. Attractors have a kind of "gravity" and power that pull developing things toward them.
As an extra layer I'm using the names of key figures, scientific, spiritual and philosophical who, by the power of their revolutionary and profound ideas, caused new movements and developments to crystallize for the first time. Their ideas are also "strange attractors".
This image is dedicated to Rupert Sheldrake and his revolutionary, scientific proposals of a developing, evolutionary and living universe that remembers, learns and grows.
Pano-Sabotaged Autumn scene and straight shots of dead leaves and flowering shrubs, mirrored, layered and colour processed.
Image created in April, 2017.
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Music Link: "A Cool, Dry Place" - System 7 ( Orb Remix ), from their album "777". I was surprised to find this particular video very nicely matching with what I've done here statically.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJfE1-LK9XU
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© Richard S Warner ( Visionheart ) - 2017. All Rights Reserved. This image is not for use in any form without explicit, express, written permission.
* - See my Galleries featuring some of the best of Flickr's purely Abstract Art at:
listen :Island in the Sun
This is my island in the sun
Where my people have toiled since time begun
I may sail on many a sea
Her shores will always be home to me
Oh, island in the sun
Willed to me by my father′s hand
All my days I will sing in praise
Of your forest, waters, your shining sand
Oh, island in the sun
Willed to me by my father's hand
All my days I will sing in praise
Of your forest, waters, your shining sand
As morning breaks, the heaven on high
I lift my heavy load to the sky
Sun comes down with a burning glow
Mingles my sweat with the earth below
Oh, island in the sun
Willed to me by my father′s hand
All my days I will sing in praise
Of your forest, waters, your shining sand
I see women on bended knee
Cutting cane for her family
I see man at the waterside
Casting nets at the surging tide
Oh, island in the sun
Willed to me by my father's hand
All my days I will sing in praise
Of your forest, waters, your shining sand
I hope the day will never come
When I can′t awake to the sound of drum
Never let me miss carnival
With calypso songs philosophical
It is hard not to get just a little philosophical at times like this. If a photographer is not present in a forest, will the leaves turn color anyway? This is no more idiotic of a sentence than asking the more familiar philosophical question, "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is present, does it make a sound?
I prefer the more modern question, "If a tree falls in the forest, is it the man's fault?"
Life has its Lighthouse, in each fleeting stage,
In youth, in manhood, and in hoary age...
In age illum'd with philosophic flame,
From Reason's Lighthouse still we steer the same;
Calm and serene our vessels onward glide,
And share the comforts of a middle tide;
Till, the last squall by fate's own edict blown,
Death wrecks our vessels on a coast unknown.
~John William Smith, "The Lighthouse," Terrors of Imagination, and Other Poems, 1814
Geshe Rabten Rinpoche, a Buddhist monk from eastern Tibet, became a philosophical assistant to the Dalai Lama and went to Europe on his behalf. He founded several Tibetan centers there, including Tashi Rabten in 1981 at Letzehof near Feldkirch, Vorarlberg. The picture shows an original Tibetan yurt on the surrounding grounds.
Feb 2025
Olympus XA4 macro, Zuiko 3,5/28 mm
Ilford SFX, no Filter, Rodinal 1+50
Print onto Ilford MG Portfolio Postcard, Moersch ECO 4812
Half the exposure time with Cokin filter P840, Diffuser 2