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You might recognize this croix from a previous post and you might actually prefer that composition, but I think this one deserved to be shown as well because, to me, it shows the way the croix de chemin are just part of the rural landscape.
Chaudière-Appalaches (Beauce), Québec, Canada.
This image is one in a series of croix de chemin (roadside crosses). There are between 2,500 and 3,000 croix de chemin scattered all over rural Québec, the historic centre of North American Catholicism. Croix de chemin are large (15 to 20 feet tall) and were “erected to fulfill a vow, to sacralize the land, or to ward off calamities” (Kaell, “Marking Memory”, p. 135). Croix de chemin are most often made of wood and are decorated with iconography of the Passion. There are three main types: (1) the simple croix de chemin which may have some decorative elements at the end or centre, (2) the croix de chemin featuring instruments of the Passion which are decorated with a lance, nails, hammer, whip, ladder, crown of thorns, and/or rooster and (3) the calvaire, which depicts the crucifixion scene.
I wrote a blog post about my December 2022 photographic trip to the rural areas of Chaudière-Appalaches (Beauce) and Bas-Saint-Laurent, south and east of Québec City. If you'd like to see some behind the scene shots, video and read some stories about how I shot these images, take a look.
If you'd like to see the rest of the images from this trip, take a look at my Québec album and if you'd like to see the series within the series - the croix de chemin - there's an album for croix, as well.
This is a silver gelatin print with elements of chemigram and lumen printing from my project "Traces".
”Traces” is a series that explores the transformation of identity over time. It delves into the fluid nature of "the self," questioning how much of who we are is shaped by our past versus the influence of fate. Through this work, I sought to deconstruct the familiar image we recognize as ourselves and rebuild it through a variety of alternative techniques. I employed methods such as manipulating the negative, experimenting with alternative chemical processes in the darkroom, and incorporating mixed media on the final prints. The portraits, captured on film first and finally printed on paper, reflect a layered process that blends traditional analog techniques with experimental approaches to reimagine the subject’s identity.
"An' uneducated' person in the highlands of Papua New Guinea can recognize seventy species of birds by their songs. An 'illiterate' shama in the Amazon can identify hundreds of medicinal plants. An Aboriginal person from Australia carries in his memory a map of the land encoded in song that extends for a thousand miles. Our minds are evolved to contain vast amounts of information about the world that gave us birth, and to pass this information on easily from one generation to the next. But to know the world, you have to live in the world." - Carol Black
I am hearing reports of people flocking to our provincial parks this summer. Stores are reporting that they can not keep camping gear in stock. Rentals for tents, campers and trailers are way up. So many people want to spend time outdoors and "live in the world" naturally. This can be great. However, too many people are not doing it respectfully. The amount of litter and human waste that is being left in spaces that shouldn't be is appalling. They are not "living in the world". They are trampling it. Please get to know the world and how your actions affect all of us.
Some of you may recognize this old house. I recently took another trip back, and the man who owns it was mowing the grass. So.... I got a little history.
The Guyitt house was built circa 1845 and purchased by the current owners grandparents Roy and Ethel Guyitt. Their children a son and a daughter remained in the home until the daughter passed away in 2003. At that time the grandson Pete purchased this home to keep in his family. He does maintain the exterior as best as can be, there have been wedding photos taken here among other countless stories he was happy to share ~ thank you so much Pete
Still away but trying to keep up, hope you are all having a wonderful weekend, it's sunny here in Nova Scotia today, a great day for adventures
~xo~
HCS
Mature bull (male) elk are recognizable by their very large set of antlers, colloquially called a "rack." A lot of biological energy goes into creating those antlers, which are shed late each winter and immediately start to re-grow in time to achieve maximum impressiveness (to cow - female - elk) and function (to warn competition for those cows) in time for September breeding season, known as "rut." During rut the bulls barely eat but they burn a ton of calories herding the cows around and threatening and sometimes coming to fisticuffs with other bulls. This individual was saving a lot of winter energy by walking down the plowed road but as I crept up to him in my car he ultimately decided to deal with traversing the deep snow along the side of the road instead of allowing me to pass him.
Note two things: 1. he's very thin, he most likely had a very rowdy rut in September and was not able to regain much weight afterwards, and 2. I suspect at some point he slept on his right side and his hair stuck to the ice and he lost a lot of it when he stood up.
Hope he makes it through winter in spite of a very poor start to the lean season.
Canna (or Canna lily, although not a true lily) is a genus of approximately twenty species of flowering plants.[1][2] The closest living relations to cannas are the other plant families of the order Zingiberales, that is the gingers, bananas, marantas, heliconias, strelitzias, etc
Canna is the only genus in the family Cannaceae. Such a family has almost universally been recognized by taxonomists. The APG II system of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system, 1998) also recognizes the family, and assigns it to the order Zingiberales in the clade commelinids, in the monocots.
The species have large, attractive foliage and horticulturists have turned it into a large-flowered, brash, bright and sometimes gaudy, garden plant. In addition, it is one of the world's richest starch sources, and is an agricultural plant
Although a plant of the tropics, most cultivars have been developed in temperate climates and are easy to grow in most countries of the world as long as they can enjoy about 6 hours average sunlight during the summer. See the Canna cultivar gallery for photographs of Canna cultivars.
The name Canna originates from the Celtic word for a cane or reed
he plants are large tropical and subtropical perennial herbs with a rhizomatous rootstock. The broad, flat, alternate leaves, that are such a feature of this plant, grow out of a stem in a long narrow roll and then unfurl. The leaves are typically solid green but some cultivars have glaucose, brownish, maroon, or even variegated leaves
The flowers are composed of three sepals and three petals that are seldom noticed by people, they are small and hidden under extravagant stamens. What appear to be petals are the highly modified stamens or staminodes. The staminodes number (1–) 3 (–4) (with at least one staminodal member called the labellum, always being present. A specialized staminode, the stamen, bears pollen from a half-anther. A somewhat narrower, 'petal' is the pistil which is connected down to a three-chambered ovary
The flowers are typically red, orange, or yellow or any combination of those colours, and are aggregated in inflorescences that are spikes or panicles (thyrses). Although gardeners enjoy these odd flowers, nature really intended them to attract pollinators collecting nectar and pollen, such as bees, hummingbirds and bats. The pollination mechanism is conspicuously specialized. Pollen is shed on the style while still in the bud, and in the species and early hybrids some is also found on the stigma because of the high position of the anther, which means that they are self-pollinating. Later cultivars have a lower anther, and rely on pollinators alighting on the labellum and touching first the terminal stigma, and then the pollen
The wild species often grow to 2-3+ meters but there is a wide variation in size among cultivated plants; numerous cultivars have been selected for smaller stature.
Canna grow from swollen underground stems, correctly known as rhizomes, which store starch, and this is the main attraction of the plant to agriculture, having the largest starch particles of all plant life.[3]
Canna is the only member of the Liliopsida Class (monocot family) in which hibernation of seed is known to occur, due to its hard, impenetrable seed covering.
The genus is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the New World, from the southern United States (southern South Carolina west to southern Texas) and south to northern Argentina
Although all cannas are native to the New World, they have followed mankind's journeys of discovery and some species are cultivated and naturalized in most tropical and sub-tropical regions.
Canna cultivars are grown in most countries, even those with territory above the Arctic Circle, which have short summers but long days, and the rapid growth rate of Cannas makes them a feasible gardening plant, as long as they get their 6 hours of sunlight each day during the growing season and are protected from the cold of winter.
The first Cannas introduced to Europe were C. indica L., which was imported from the East Indies, though the species originated from the Americas. Charles de l'Ecluse, who first described and sketched C. indica indicates this origin, and states that it was given the name of indica, not because the plant is from India, in Asia, but because this species was originally transported from America: "Quia ex America primum delata sit"; and at that time, one described the tropical areas of that part of the globe as the Western Indies;[8] English speakers still call them the West Indies.
Much later, in 1658, Pison made reference[9] to another species which he documented under the vulgar or common name of 'Albara' and 'Pacivira', which resided, he said, in the shaded and damp places, between the tropics; this species is Canna angustifolia L., (later reclassified as C. glauca L. by taxonomists).[1]
Without exception, all Canna species that have been introduced into Europe can be traced back to the Americas, and it can be asserted with confidence that Canna is solely an American genus. If Asia and Africa provided some of the early introductions, they were only varieties resulting from C. indica and C. glauca cultivars that have been grown for a long time in India and Africa, with both species imported from Central and South America. Canna is an American genus, as pointed out by Lamarck were he argues that "Cannas were unknown to the ancients, and that it is only after the discovery of the New World, that they made their appearance in Europe; Since Canna have very hard and durable seed coverings, it is likely that seed remains would have survived in the right conditions and found by archaeologists in the Old World. If the soils of India or Africa had produced some of them, they would have been imported before the 1860s into European gardens.
* Some species and many cultivars are widely grown in the garden in temperate and sub-tropical regions. Sometimes, they are also grown as potted plants. A large number of ornamental cultivars have been developed. They can be used in herbaceous borders, tropical plantings, and as a patio or decking plant.
* Internationally, cannas are one of the most popular garden plants and a large horticultural industry depends on the plant.
* The canna rhizome is rich in starch, and it has many uses in agriculture. All of the plant has commercial value, rhizomes for starch (consumption by humans and livestock), stems and foliage for animal fodder, young shoots as a vegetable and young seeds as an addition to tortillas.
* The seeds are used as beads in jewelry.
* The seeds are used as the mobile elements of the kayamb, a musical instrument from Réunion, as well as the hosho, a gourd rattle from Zimbabwe, where the seeds are known as "hota" seeds.
* In remoter regions of India, cannas are fermented to produce alcohol.
* The plant yields a fibre - from the stem - it is used as a jute substitute.
* A fibre obtained from the leaves is used for making paper. The leaves are harvested in late summer after the plant has flowered, they are scraped to remove the outer skin and are then soaked in water for 2 hours prior to cooking. The fibres are cooked for 24 hours with lye and then beaten in a blender. They make a light tan brown paper.
* A purple dye is obtained from the seed.
* Smoke from the burning leaves is said to be insecticidal.
* Cannas are used to extract many undesirable pollutants in a wetland environment as they have a high tolerance to contaminants.
Wild Canna species are the Cannas unaffected by mankind. There are approximately 20 known species, and in the last three decades of the 20th century, Canna species have been categorised by two different taxonomists, Paul Maas, from the Netherlands and Nobuyuki Tanaka from Japan. Both reduced the number of species from the 50-100 that had been accepted previously, and assigned most to being synonyms.
The reduction in numbers is also confirmed by work done by Kress and Prince at the Smithsonian Institution, however, this only covers a subset of the species range.
Cannas became very popular in Victorian times as a garden plant and were grown widely in France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the USA.
As tender perennials in northern climates, they suffered severe setbacks when two world wars sent the young gardening staff off to war. It took many years for the frugalities of war and its rationing subsequences to change to the more prosperous times of the late 20th century. We have recently experienced a renewed interest and revival in popularity of the Canna genus.
There were once many hundreds of cultivars but many of these are now extinct. In 1910, Árpäd Mühle, from Hungary, published his Canna book , written in higher German. It contained descriptions of over 500 cultivars.
In recent years many new cultivars have been created, but the genus suffers severely from having many synonyms for many popular ones. Most of the synonyms were created by old varieties re-surfacing without viable names, with the increase in popularity from the 1960s onwards. Research has accumulated over 2,800 Canna cultivar names, however, many of these are simply synonyms.
See List of Canna hybridists for details of the people and firms that created the current Canna legacy we all enjoy.
In the early 1900s, Professor Liberty Hyde Bailey defined, in detail, two garden species (C. x generalis and C. x orchiodes) to categorise the floriferous Cannas being grown at that time, namely the Crozy hybrids and the ‘orchid-like’ hybrids introduced by Carl Ludwig Sprenger in Italy and Luther Burbank in the USA, at about the same time (1894) The definition was based on the genotype, rather than the phenotype, of the two cultivar groups. Inevitably, over time those two floriferous groups were interbred, the distinctions became blurred and overlapped, and the Bailey species names became redundant Pseudo-species names are now deprecated by the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants which, instead, provides Cultivar Groups for categorising cultivars
The Canna Agriculture Group contains all of the varieties of Canna grown in agriculture. Canna achira is a generic term used in South America to describe the cannas that have been selectively bred for agricultural purposes, normally derived from C. discolor. It is grown especially for its edible rootstock from which starch is obtained, but the leaves and young seed are also edible, and achira was once a staple foodcrop in Peru and Ecuador
Many more traditional varieties exist world-wide, they have all involved human selection and so are classified as agricultural cultivars. Traditionally, Canna 'edulis' has been reputed to be the variety grown for food in South America, but there is no scientific evidence to substantiate the name. It is probable that edulis is simply a synonym of C. discolor, which is grown for agricultural purposes throughout Asia.
Cannas grow best in full sun with moderate water in well-drained rich or sandy soil. Cannas grow from perennial rhizomes but are frequently grown as annuals in temperate zones for an exotic or tropical look in the garden.[2]
The rhizomes are marginally cold hardy but may rot if left unprotected in freezing conditions. In areas which go below about −10 °C in the winter, the rhizomes can be dug up before freezing and stored in a protected area (above +7 °C) for replanting in the spring. Otherwise, it is recommended that Cannas are protected by a thick layer of mulch overwinter.
Cannas are largely free of pests but in the USA plants sometimes fall victim to the Canna Leaf Roller and the resultant leaf damage can be most distressing to a keen gardener.
Slugs and snails are fond of Cannas and can leave large holes in the leaves, preferring the tender young leaves that have not yet unfurled. Red Spider Mite can also be a problem for Cannas grown indoors or during a very hot, long summer outdoors. The Japanese Beetles will also ravage the leaves if left uncontrolled.
Canna are remarkably free of disease, compared to many genus. However, they may fall victim to canna rust, a fungus resulting in orange spots on the plant's leaves, caused by over moist soil. Cannas are also susceptible to certain plant viruses, some of which are Canna specific viruses, which may result in spotted or streaked leaves, in a mild form, but can finally result in stunted growth and twisted and distorted blooms and foliage.
The flowers are sometimes affected by a grey, fuzzy mold called Botrytis. Under humid conditions it is often found growing on the older flowers. Treatment is to simply remove the old flowers, so the mould does not spread to the new flowers.
Seeds are produced from sexual reproduction, involving the transfer of pollen from the stamen of the pollen parent onto the stigma of the seed parent. In the case of Canna, the same plant can usually play the roles of both pollen and seed parents, technically referred to as a hermaphrodite. However, the cultivars of the Italian Group and triploids are almost always seed sterile, and their pollen has a low fertility level. Mutations are almost always totally sterile.
The species are capable of self-pollination, but most cultivars require an outside pollinator. All cannas produce nectar and therefore attract nectar consuming insects, bats and hummingbirds that act as the transfer agent, spreading pollen between stamens and stigmas, on the same or different inflorescence.
Since genetic recombination has occurred a cultivar grown from seed will have different characteristics to its parent(s) and thus should never be given a parent’s name. The wild species have evolved in the absence of other Canna genes and are deemed to be ‘true to type’ when the parents are of the same species. In the latter case there is still a degree of variance, producing various varieties or minor forms (forma). In particular, the species C. indica is an aggregate species, having many different and extreme varieties and forma ranging from the giant to miniature, from large foliage to small foliage, both green and dark foliage and many different coloured blooms, red, orange, pink, and yellow and combinations of those colours.
Outside of a laboratory, the only asexual propagation method that is effective is rhizome division. This is done by using material from a single parent, and as there is no exchange of genetic material such vegetative propagation methods almost always produce plants that are identical to the parent. After a summer’s growth the horticultural Canna can be separated into typically four or five separate smaller rhizomes, each with a growing nodal point (‘growing eye’). Without the growing point, which is composed of meristem material, the rhizome will not grow.
Micropropagation, or tissue culture as it is also known, is the practice of rapidly multiplying stock plant material to produce a large number of progeny plants. Micropropagation using in vitro (in glass) methods that produce plants by taking small sections of plants and moving them into a sterile environment were they first produce proliferations that are then separated from each other and then rooted or allowed to grow new stem tissue. The process of plant growth is regulated by different ratios of plant growth regulators or PGRs, that promote cell growth. Many commercial organizations have attempted to produce Canna this way, and specifically the “Island Series” of Cannas was introduced by means of mass produced plants using this technique. However, Cannas have a reputation of being difficult micropropagation specimens.
Note Micropropagation techniques can be employed on specimens infected with Canna virus and used to dis-infest plants of the virus, it is possible to use a growing shoot tip as the explant, the growing tip is induced into rapid growth, which results in rapid cell division that has not had time to be infected with the virus. The rapidly growing region of meristem cells producing the shoot tip is cut off and placed in vitro, with a very high probability of being uncontaminated by virus, since it has not yet had contact with the sap of the plant which moves the virus within the plant. In this way, healthy stock can be reclaimed from virus contaminated plants.
One of the most recognized landmarks in Zion National Park, Court of the Patriarchs reach into the Utah sky. These three photogenic peaks bear the biblical names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Towering above Birch Creek Canyon almost 2000 feet, the Court of the Patriarchs represents nearly a full layer of Navajo Sandstone. This exposed sandstone is one of nine Zion rock layers that together span 150 million years of sediment deposits. The Patriarch cliffs represent one of the thickest layers of sediment, making up some of the tallest cliffs in the world. Occasional flash floods in the Virgin River increase water volume by 100 times and bring down tons of loose rock and sand, scouring out new side canyons and re-channeling the river. Here in Zion Canyon this magnificent scenery is always experiencing change, but its subtleties are seldom recognized in such an immense canyon.
In my time photographing sunsets and sunrises, I’ve come to recognize various sorts of stages of the progression of color as the sun sets or rises depending on the types of clouds. And even then sometimes I’m caught by surprise. On this occasion, a band of clouds further north had put on some nice color and I had all but given up for the evening, not having a particular plan in place after arriving a bit later than I had intended. I’ve been pretty emotional lately thinking often of my father, and it would be pretty accurate to say that I could have used a hug. As I was setting up camp for the night, high clouds were drifting south quite rapidly, and to my surprise they began to pick up color in what I consider to be the afterglow (or pre-glow in a sunrise scenario). I ran over to the other side of the road with my camera to frame up a shot of the towering dunes with these clouds. This kind of color can be very intense but is very dark. In this case the color is happening some 40 minutes after the sun has set, which is why I think of it as afterglow. To keep the clouds from being a motion blurred mess, I had to up the ISO to 1600 where here a 2.5 second exposure froze the clouds enough to have some detail. In this moment, alone in the desert wilderness, it seemed to me the clouds reached out for an embrace for a moment when I could really use it, and I felt some comfort.
Recognizable species due to completely black legs and the reddish-brown pterostigma, lighter in the females. The adults are found from June to October and are more abundant in August. We find them in environments rich in aquatic vegetation from the plain to over 1000 meters of altitude. Dragonflies represent one of the most famous bioindicators of the state of health of the environment in which they live as they are individuals particularly sensitive to different forms of pollution and carry out their larval development in water.
SOURCE: Odonata.it, Piemonteparchi.it
Po Valley - Piedmont/taly
“pain and love have no borders,
even if we raise walls not to see the pain
and we put boundaries to not recognize love.”
(Enzo Bianchi)
“il dolore e l'amore non hanno frontiere,
anche se noi alziamo muri per non vedere il dolore
e mettiamo confini per non riconoscere l'amore.”
(Enzo Bianchi)
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click to activate the icon of slideshow: the small triangle inscribed in the small rectangle, at the top right, in the photostream;
or…. press L to enlarge;
clicca sulla piccola icona per attivare lo slideshow: sulla facciata principale del photostream, in alto a destra c'è un piccolo rettangolo (rappresenta il monitor) con dentro un piccolo triangolo nero;
oppure…. premi L per ingrandire l'immagine;
www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-...
www.fotografidigitali.it/gallery/2726/opere-italiane-segn...
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All the photos I present were taken in the town of Taormina (Sicily);
I made photos related to "street photography";
I made portraits of people I did not know, this certainly thanks to their sympathy and availability, I thank them very much;
I tried to capture the essence of minimal photographic stories, collected walking down the street ... in search of fleeting moments ...
For some photographs I used a particular photographic technique at the time of shooting, which in addition to capturing the surrounding space, also "inserted" a temporal dimension, with photos characterized by being moved because the exposure times were deliberately lengthened, they are confused -focused-imprecise-undecided ... the Anglo-Saxon term that encloses this photographic genre with a single word is "blur", these images were thus created during the shooting phase, and not as an effect created subsequently, in retrospect, in the post-production.
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Tutte le foto che presento sono state realizzate nella cittadina di Taormina (Sicilia);
ho realizzato foto riconducibili alla “street photography”;
ho realizzato dei ritratti di persone che non conoscevo, questo certamente grazie alla loro simpatia e disponibilità, li ringrazio davvero molto;
ho cercato di cogliere al volo l’essenza di storie fotografiche minime, raccolte camminando per la strada ... alla ricerca di attimi fugaci s-fuggenti ...
Ho utilizzato per alcune fotografie una tecnica fotografica particolare al momento dello scatto, che oltre a catturare lo spazio circostante, ha "inserito" anche una dimensione temporale, con foto caratterizzate dall’essere mosse poiché volutamente sono stati allungati i tempi di esposizione, sono confuse-sfocate-imprecise-indecise...il termine anglosassone che racchiude con una sola parola questo genere fotografico è "blur", queste immagini sono state così realizzate in fase di scatto, e non come un effetto creato successivamente, a posteriori, in fase di post-produzione.
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Recognized internationally as one of the finest general art museums in the United States, the Nelson-Atkins currently maintains collections of more than 33,500 works of art.
Easily recognized for their distinctive head markings, buffleheads are among our smallest ducks. As they are diving ducks, they offer a now-you-see'em, now-you-don't kind of viewing opportunity when they're on the water. This one looks like it's done diving.
Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina
Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope. Maya Angelou.
Los Angeles. California.
Ikaria is one of the most recognizable sculptures by Igor Mitoraj. Its original replica was placed in the Paris district of La Défense, next to the most famous works of sculpture artists from around the world. The three-meter version of Ikaria, created in 1996, currently presented in the courtyard of the Pod Blachą Palace, comes from a private collection. The birthplace of the monumental figure is the Italian foundry of Pietrasanta in Tuscany. Until now, the figure was in the mBank's art collection, and then acquired by a private owner, was deposited for a temporary exhibition, related to the jubilee of the reconstruction of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
The artist's work was inspired by the world of Greek and Roman mythology, and Ikaria is a clear reference to the myth of Daedalus and Icarus. Ascent as well as fall. Winged Ikaria reminds us of the eternal human drive to fulfillment and development, to rise to the heights of his abilities. It depicts a winged woman, proud in her majesty. Ready until it can take to the air. Both the inspiration and the obstacle in this flight may seem to be the male face, which we see in several places: in the hole cut on one of the wings, on the side and in the womb of the woman. A male hand prevents a female from flying into the skies.
i always recognize the forces that will shape my life. i let them do their work. sometimes they tear through my life like a hurricane.
sometimes they simply shift the ground under me, so that i stand on different earth, and something or someone has been swallowed up.
i steady myself, in the earthquake. i lie down, and let the hurricane pass over me. i never fight.
afterwards i look around me, and i say, 'ah, so this at least is left for me. and that dear person has also survived.'
i quietly inscribe on the stone tablet of my heart the name which has gone forever. the inscription is a thing of agony.
then i start on my way again.
josephine hart damage
The royal Château de Chambord, Loir-et-Cher, France, is one of the most recognizable châteaux in the world because of its very distinct French Renaissance architecture. It was constructed by King François I to serve as a hunting lodge.
Nikon F90, TMax film. I recognize this from Knouff Lake/Sullivan Lake British Columbia, just north of Kamloops. It's 30 or so km off the beaten path (but there is a road into the area). It was the last time I was in the bush with a film camera. Up at my sister's place in the mountains for Christmas. I have a feeling I must have liked the birch and aspen saplings. I found the roll in a bunch of junk and had no idea what was on it till today.
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord --Importance of memory--
Landschaftspark is a public park located in Duisburg-Meiderich, Germany. It was designed in 1991 by Latz + Partner (Peter Latz), with the intention that it work to heal and understand the industrial past, rather than trying to reject it. The park closely associates itself with the past use of the site: a coal and steel production plant (abandoned in 1985, leaving the area significantly polluted) and the agricultural land it had been prior to the mid 19th century
Conception and creation
In 1991, a co-operative-concurrent planning procedure with five international planning teams was held to design the park. Peter Latz’s design was significant, as it attempted to preserve as much of the existing site as possible. Unlike his competitors, Latz recognized the value of the site’s current condition. He allowed the polluted soils to remain in place and be remediated through phytoremediation, and sequestered soils with high toxicity in the existing bunkers. He also found new uses for many of the old structures, and turned the former sewage canal into a method of cleansing the site.
Design
The park is divided into different areas, whose borders were carefully developed by looking at existing conditions (such as how the site had been divided by existing roads and railways, what types of plants had begun to grow in each area, etc.). This piecemeal pattern was then woven together by a series of walkways and waterways, which were placed according to the old railway and sewer systems. While each piece retains its character, it also creates a dialogue with the site surrounding it. Within the main complex, Latz emphasized specific programmatic elements: the concrete bunkers create a space for a series of intimate gardens, old gas tanks have become pools for scuba divers, concrete walls are used by rock climbers, and one of the most central places of the factory, the middle of the former steel mill, has been made into piazza. Each of these spaces uses elements to allow for a specific reading of time.
The site was designed with the idea that a grandfather, who might have worked at the plant, could walk with his grandchildren, explaining what he used to do and what the machinery had been used for. At Landschaftspark, memory was central to the design. Various authors have addressed the ways in which memory can inform the visitor of a site, a concept that became prevalent during Postmodernism.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landschaftspark_Duisburg-Nord
You might also look at these adresses:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijra_(South_Asia)
Hijra (for translations, see [n 1]) is a term used in South Asia – particularly in India and Pakistan – to refer to trans women (male-to-female transgender individuals).[1][2] In different areas of Pakistan and India, transgender people are also known as Aravani, Aruvani or Jagappa.[3]
In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the hijras are officially recognized as third gender by the government,[4][5] being neither completely male nor female. In India also, transgender people have been given the status of third gender and are protected as per the law despite the social ostracism. The term more commonly advocated by social workers and transgender community members themselves is khwaja sira (Urdu: خواجہ سرا) and can identify the individual as a transsexual person, transgender person (khusras), cross-dresser (zenanas) or eunuch (narnbans).[6][7]
Hijras have a recorded history in the Indian subcontinent from antiquity onwards as suggested by the Kama Sutra period. This history features a number of well-known roles within subcontinental cultures, part gender-liminal, part spiritual and part survival.
In South Asia, many hijras live in well-defined and organised all-hijra communities, led by a guru.[8][9] These communities have sustained themselves over generations by "adopting" boys who are in abject poverty, rejected by, or flee, their family of origin.[10] Many work as sex workers for survival.[11]
The word "hijra" is an Urdu word derived from the Semitic Arabic root hjr in its sense of "leaving one's tribe,"[12] and has been borrowed into Hindi. The Indian usage has traditionally been translated into English as "eunuch" or "hermaphrodite," where "the irregularity of the male genitalia is central to the definition."[13] However, in general hijras are born with typically male physiology, only a few having been born with intersex variations.[14] Some Hijras undergo an initiation rite into the hijra community called nirwaan, which refers to the removal of the penis, scrotum and testicles.[11]
Since the late 20th century, some hijra activists and Western non-government organizations (NGOs) have lobbied for official recognition of the hijra as a kind of "third sex" or "third gender," as neither man nor woman.[15] Hijras have successfully gained this recognition in Bangladesh and are eligible for priority in education.[16] In India, the Supreme Court in April 2014 recognised hijra and transgender people as a 'third gender' in law.[17][18][19]
Nepal, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have all legally recognized the existence of a third gender, including on passports and other official documents.
Terminology
The Urdu and Hindi word hijra may alternately be romanized as hijira, hijda, hijada, hijara, hijrah and is pronounced [ˈɦɪdʒɽaː]. This term is generally considered derogatory in Urdu and the word Khwaja Sara is used instead. Another such term is khasuaa (खसुआ) or khusaraa (खुसरा). In Bengali hijra is called হিজড়া, hijra, hijla, hijre, hizra, or hizre.
A number of terms across the culturally and linguistically diverse Indian subcontinent represent similar sex or gender categories. While these are rough synonyms, they may be better understood as separate identities due to regional cultural differences. In Odia, a hijra is referred to as hinjida, hinjda or napunsaka, in Telugu, as napunsakudu (నపుంసకుడు), kojja (కొజ్జ) or maada (మాడ), in Tamil Nadu, Thiru nangai (mister woman), Ali, aravanni, aravani, or aruvani, in Punjabi, khusra and jankha, in Sindhi khadra, in Gujarati, pavaiyaa (પાવૈયા).
In North India, the goddess Bahuchara Mata is worshipped by Pavaiyaa (પાવૈયા). In South India, the goddess Renuka is believed to have the power to change one's sex. Male devotees in female clothing are known as Jogappa. They perform similar roles to hijra, such as dancing and singing at birth ceremonies and weddings.[21]
The word kothi (or koti) is common across India, similar to the Kathoey of Thailand, although kothis are often distinguished from hijras. Kothis are regarded as feminine men or boys who take a feminine role in sex with men, but do not live in the kind of intentional communities that hijras usually live in. Additionally, not all kothis have undergone initiation rites or the body modification steps to become a hijra.[22] Local equivalents include durani (Kolkata), menaka (Cochin),[23] meti (Nepal), and zenana (Pakistan).
Hijra used to be translated in English as "eunuch" or "hermaphrodite,"[13] although LGBT historians or human rights activists have sought to include them as being transgender.[24] In a series of meetings convened between October 2013 and Jan 2014 by the transgender experts committee of India's Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, hijra and other trans activists asked that the term "eunuch" be discontinued from usage in government documents, as it is not a term with which the communities identify.
Gender and sexuality
These identities have no exact match in the modern Western taxonomy of gender and sexual orientation,[24] and challenge Western ideas of sex and gender.[11]
In India, some Hijras do not define themselves by specific sexual orientation, but rather by renouncing sexuality altogether. Sexual energy is transformed into sacred powers. However, these notions can come in conflict with the practical, which is that hijras are often employed as prostitutes.[25] Furthermore, in India a feminine male who takes a "receptive" role in sex with a man will often identify as a kothi (or the local equivalent term). While kothis are usually distinguished from hijras as a separate gender identity, they often dress as women and act in a feminine manner in public spaces, even using feminine language to refer to themselves and each other. The usual partners of hijras and kothis are men who consider themselves heterosexual as they are the ones who penetrate.[26] These male partners are often married, and any relationships or sex with "kothis" or hijras are usually kept secret from the community at large. Some hijras may form relationships with men and even marry,[27] although their marriage is not usually recognized by law or religion. Hijras and kothis often have a name for these masculine sexual or romantic partners; for example, panthi in Bangladesh, giriya in Delhi or sridhar in Cochin.[23]
Social status and economic circumstances
Most hijras live at the margins of society with very low status; the very word "hijra" is sometimes used in a derogatory manner. The Indian lawyer and author Rajesh Talwar has written a book highlighting the human rights abuses suffered by the community titled 'The Third Sex and Human Rights.'[28] Few employment opportunities are available to hijras. Many get their income from extortion (forced payment by disrupting work/life using demonstrations and interference), performing at ceremonies (toli), begging (dheengna), or sex work ('raarha')—an occupation of eunuchs also recorded in premodern times. Violence against hijras, especially hijra sex workers, is often brutal, and occurs in public spaces, police stations, prisons, and their homes.[29] As with transgender people in most of the world, they face extreme discrimination in health, housing, education, employment, immigration, law, and any bureaucracy that is unable to place them into male or female gender categories.[30]
In 2008, HIV prevalence was 27.6% amongst hijra sex workers in Larkana.[6] The general prevalence of HIV among the adult Pakistani population is estimated at 0.1%.[31]
In October 2013, Pakistani Christians and Muslims (Shia and Sunni) put pressure on the landlords of Imamia Colony to evict any transgender residents. "Generally in Pakistan, Khwaja Sira are not under threat. But they are in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province because of a 'new Islam' under way", I.A. Rehman, the director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.[32]
In a study of Bangladeshi hijras, participants reported not being allowed to seek healthcare at the private chambers of doctors, and experiencing abuse if they go to government hospitals.[33]
Beginning in 2006, hijras were engaged to accompany Patna city revenue officials to collect unpaid taxes, receiving a 4-percent commission.[34]
Since India's Supreme Court re-criminalized homosexual sex on 13 December 2013, there has been a sharp increase in the physical, psychological and sexual violence against the transgender community by the Indian Police Service, nor are they investigating even when sexual assault against them is reported.[35]
On 15 April 2014, in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, the Supreme Court of India ruled that transgender people should be treated as a third category of gender or as a socially and economically "backward" class entitled to proportional access and representation in education and jobs.[36]
Language
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The hijra community due to its peculiar place in sub-continental society which entailed marginalisation yet royal privileges developed a secret language known as Hijra Farsi. The language has a sentence structure loosely based on Urdu and a unique vocabulary of at least a thousand words. Beyond the Urdu-Hindi speaking areas of subcontinent the vocabulary is still used by the hijra community within their own native languages.
In South Asian politics
In 2013, transgender people in Pakistan were given their first opportunity to stand for election.[37] Sanam Fakir, a 32-year-old hijra, ran as an independent candidate for Sukkur, Pakistan's general election in May.[38]
The governments of both India (1994)[39] and Pakistan (2009)[40] have recognized hijras as a "third sex", thus granting them the basic civil rights of every citizen. In India, hijras now have the option to identify as a eunuch ("E") on passports and on certain government documents. They are not, however, fully accommodated; in order to vote, for example, citizens must identify as either male or female. There is also further discrimination from the government. In the 2009 general election, India's election committee denied three hijras candidature unless they identified themselves as either male or female.
In April 2014, Justice KS Radhakrishnan declared transgender to be the third gender in Indian law, in a case brought by the National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa) against Union of India and others.[17][18][19] The ruling said:[41]
Seldom, our society realises or cares to realise the trauma, agony and pain which the members of Transgender community undergo, nor appreciates the innate feelings of the members of the Transgender community, especially of those whose mind and body disown their biological sex. Our society often ridicules and abuses the Transgender community and in public places like railway stations, bus stands, schools, workplaces, malls, theatres, hospitals, they are sidelined and treated as untouchables, forgetting the fact that the moral failure lies in the society's unwillingness to contain or embrace different gender identities and expressions, a mindset which we have to change.
Justice Radhakrishnan said that transgender people should be treated consistently with other minorities under the law, enabling them to access jobs, healthcare and education.[42] He framed the issue as one of human rights, saying that, "These TGs, even though insignificant in numbers, are still human beings and therefore they have every right to enjoy their human rights", concluding by declaring that:[41]
Hijras, Eunuchs, apart from binary gender, be treated as "third gender" for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under Part III of our Constitution and the laws made by the Parliament and the State Legislature.
Transgender persons' right to decide their self-identified gender is also upheld and the Centre and State Governments are directed to grant legal recognition of their gender identity such as male, female or as third gender.
A bill supported by all political parties was tabled in Indian parliament to ensure transgender people get benefits akin reserved communities like SC/STs and is taking steps to see that they get enrollment in schools and jobs in government besides protection from sexual harassment.[43]
History
The ancient Kama Sutra mentions the performance of fellatio by feminine people of a third sex (tritiya prakriti).[44] This passage has been variously interpreted as referring to men who desired other men, so-called eunuchs ("those disguised as males, and those that are disguised as females"[45]), male and female trans people ("the male takes on the appearance of a female and the female takes on the appearance of the male"),[46] or two kinds of biological males, one dressed as a woman, the other as a man.[47]
During the era of the British Raj, authorities attempted to eradicate hijras, whom they saw as "a breach of public decency."[48] Anti-hijra laws were repealed; but a law outlawing castration, a central part of the hijra community, was left intact, though rarely enforced. Also during British rule in India they were placed under the Criminal Tribes Act 1871 and labelled a "criminal tribe," hence subjected to compulsory registration, strict monitoring and stigmatized for a long time; after independence however they were denotified in 1952, though the centuries-old stigma continues.[49]
In religion
The Indian transgender hijras or Aravanis ritually marry the Hindu god Aravan and then mourn his ritual death (seen) in an 18-day festival in Koovagam, India.
Many practice a form of syncretism that draws on multiple religions; seeing themselves to be neither men nor women, hijras practice rituals for both men and women.
Hijras belong to a special caste. They are usually devotees of the mother goddess Bahuchara Mata, Lord Shiva, or both.
Hijras and Bahuchara Mata
Bahuchara Mata is a Hindu goddess with two unrelated stories both associated with transgender behavior. One story is that she appeared in the avatar of a princess who castrated her husband because he would run in the woods and act like a woman rather than have sex with her. Another story is that a man tried to rape her, so she cursed him with impotence. When the man begged her forgiveness to have the curse removed, she relented only after he agreed to run in the woods and act like a woman. The primary temple to this goddess is located in Gujarat[50] and it is a place of pilgrimage for hijras, who see Bahucahara Mata as a patroness.
Hijras and Lord Shiva
One of the forms of Lord Shiva is a merging with Parvati where together they are Ardhanari, a god that is half Shiva and Half Parvati. Ardhanari has special significance as a patron of hijras, who identify with the gender ambiguity.[50]
Hijras in the Ramayana
In some versions of the Ramayana,[51] when Rama leaves Ayodhya for his 14-year exile, a crowd of his subjects follow him into the forest because of their devotion to him. Soon Rama notices this, and gathers them to tell them not to mourn, and that all the "men and women" of his kingdom should return to their places in Ayodhya. Rama then leaves and has adventures for 14 years. When he returns to Ayodhya, he finds that the hijras, being neither men nor women, have not moved from the place where he gave his speech. Impressed with their devotion, Rama grants hijras the boon to confer blessings on people during auspicious inaugural occasions like childbirth and weddings. This boon is the origin of badhai in which hijras sing, dance, and give blessings.[
Hijras in the Mahabharata
Mahabharata includes an episode in which Arjun, a hero of the epic, is sent into an exile. There he assumes an identity of a eunuch-transvestite and performs rituals during weddings and childbirths that are now performed by hijras.[53]
In the Mahabharata, before the Kurukshetra War, Iravan offers his lifeblood to goddess Kali to ensure the victory of the Pandavas, and Kali agrees to grant him power. On the night before the battle, Iravan expresses a desire to get married before he dies. No woman was willing to marry a man doomed to die in a few hours, so Arjuna as Brihinala marries him. In South India, hijras claim Iravan as their progenitor and call themselves "aravanis."[52]
"Sangam literature use ' word 'Pedi' to refer to people born with Intersex condition, it also refers to antharlinga hijras and various Hijra, The Aravan cult in Koovagam village of Tamil Nadu is a folk tradition of the transwomen, where the members enact the legend during an annual three-day festival. "This is completely different from the sakibeki cult of West Bengal, where transwomen don't have to undergo sex change surgery or shave off their facial hair. They dress as women still retaining their masculine features and sing in praise of Lord Krishna,". "Whereas, since the Tamil society is more conservative and hetero-normative, transwomen completely change themselves as women. In the ancient times, even religion has its own way of accepting these fringe communities." The Bachura Devi worship in Gujarat and Jogappa cult of Karanataka are the other examples.the kinds of dialects and languages spoken by these community in different parts of the country and the socio-cultural impact on the lingo. 'Hijra Farsi' is the transgender dialect, a mix of Urdu, Hindi and Persian spoken in the northern belt of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan and 'Kothi Baashai' is spoken by the transgender community in Karnataka, Andhra, Orissa and parts of Tamil Nadu. "They even have sign languages and typical mannerisms to communicate. The peculiar clap is one such"
—Gopi Shankar Madurai, National Queer Conference 2013[54][55]
Each year in Tamil Nadu, during April and May, hijras celebrate an eighteen-day religious festival. The aravani temple is located in the village Koovagam in the Ulundurpet taluk in Villupuram district, and is devoted to the deity Koothandavar, who is identified with Aravan. During the festival, the aravanis reenact a story of the wedding of Lord Krishna and Lord Aravan, followed by Aravan's subsequent sacrifice. They then mourn Aravan's death through ritualistic dances and by breaking their bangles. An annual beauty pageant is also held, as well as various health and HIV or AIDS seminars. Hijras from all over the country travel to this festival. A personal experience of the hijras in this festival is shown in the BBC Three documentary India's Ladyboys and also in the National Geographic Channel television series Taboo.
Hijras in Islam
There is evidence that Indian hijras identifying as Muslim also incorporate aspects of Hinduism. Still, despite this syncretism, Reddy (2005) notes that a hijra does not practice Islam differently from other Muslims and argues that their syncretism does not make them any less Muslim. Reddy (2003) also documents an example of how this syncretism manifests: in Hyderabad, India a group of Muslim converts were circumcised, something seen as the quintessential marker of male Muslim identity.[clarification needed]
In films and literature
Bangladesh
The film Common Gender (2012) relates the story of the Bangladesh hijra and their struggle for survival.
India
Hijras have been portrayed on screen in Indian cinema since its inception, historically as comic relief. A notable turning point occurred in 1974 when real hijras appeared during a song-and-dance sequence in Kunwaara Baap ("The Unmarried Father"). There are also hijras in the Hindi movie Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) who accompany one of the heroes, Akbar (Rishi Kapoor), in a song entitled "Tayyab Ali Pyar Ka Dushman" ("Tayyab Ali, the Enemy of Love"). One of the first sympathetic hijra portrayals was in Mani Ratnam's Bombay (1995). 1997's Tamanna[56] starred male actor Paresh Rawal in a central role as "Tiku", a hijra who raises a young orphan. Pooja Bhatt produced and also starred in the movie, with her father Mahesh Bhatt co-writing and directing. Deepa Mehta's Water features the hijra character "Gulabi" (played by Raghubir Yadav), who has taken to introducing the downtrodden, outcast widows of Varanasi to prostitution. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the film generated much controversy. There is a brief appearance of hijras in the 2004 Gurinder Chadha film Bride & Prejudice, singing to a bride-to-be in the marketplace. There's also a loose reference, in the guise of "Rocky" ("Rokini") in Deepha Mehta's Bollywood/Hollywood.
The 1997 Hindi film Darmiyaan: In Between directed & co-written by Kalpana Lajmi is based on the subject of Hijra, wherein a fictitious story of an actress bearing a son that turns out to be neuter.
In the 2000 Tamil film Appu directed by Vasanth, a remake of the Hindi film Sadak, the antagonist is a brothel-owning hijra played by Prakash Raj. (In Sadak, the brothel-owning character was played by Sadashiv Amrapurkar under the name "Maharani".)
In 2005, a fiction feature film titled Shabnam Mausi was made on the life of a eunuch politician Shabnam Mausi. It was directed by Yogesh Bharadwaj and the title role played by Ashutosh Rana.
Jogwa, a 2009 Marathi film, depicts the story of a man forced to be hijra under certain circumstances. The movie has received several accolades.[57]
In Soorma Bhopali, Jagdeep encounters a troupe of hijra on his arrival in Bombay. The leader of this pack is also played by Jagdeep himself.
In Anil Kapoor's Nayak, Johnny Lever, who plays the role of the hero's assistant, gets beaten up by hijras, when he is caught calling them "hijra" (he is in habit of calling almost everyone who bothers him by this pejorative and no one cares much, except this once ironically, as the addressees are literally what he is calling them.)
One of the main characters in Khushwant Singh's novel Delhi, Bhagmati is a hijra. She makes a living as a semi-prostitute and is wanted in the diplomatic circles of the city.
Vijay TV's Ippadikku Rose, a Tamil show conducted by postgraduate educated transgender woman Rose is a very successfully running program that discusses various issues faced by youth in Tamil Nadu, where she also gives her own experiences.
In addition to numerous other themes, the 2008 movie Welcome to Sajjanpur by Shyam Benegal explores the role of hijras in Indian society.
In the Malayalam movie Ardhanaari, released on 23 November 2012, director Santhosh Sowparnika tries to depict the life of a transgender person. Manoj K Jayan, Thilakan, Sukumari and Maniyanpilla Raju perform leading roles.
In August, 2015, a music video featuring 7 hijras dressed in outfits or uniforms of various professions and singing the National Anthem of India created by a YouTube channel Yathartha Pictures went viral for being the first National Anthem video sung by hijras in India.[58][59] The hijras featured in the video were brought together by the Humsafar Trust, a Mumbai-based NGO which promotes LGBT rights.[60][61]
Tamil
Vaadamalli by novelist Su.Samuthiram is the first Tamil novel about Aravaani community in Tamil Nadu, published in 1994. Later transgender activist A. Revathi became first Hijra to write about transgender issues and gender politics in Tamil, her works have been translated in more than 8 languages and acting as a primary resources on Gender Studies in Asia. Her book is part of research project for more than 100 universities. She is the author of Unarvum Uruvamum (Feelings of the Entire Body); is the first of its kind in English from a member of the hijra community.[62][63][64] She also acted,directed several stage plays on Gender and Sexuality issues in Tamil and Kannada."The Truth about Me: A Hijra Life Story" by Transgender A.Revathi[65] is part of the syllabus for Final Year students of The American College in Madurai. Later Naan Saravanan Alla" (2007) and Vidya's "I am Vidya" (2008) became first transwoman autobiography.[66][67]
Pakistan
The 1992 film Immaculate Conception[68] by Jamil Dehlavi is based upon the culture-clash between a western Jewish couple seeking fertility at a Karachi shrine known to be blessed by a Sufi fakir called 'Gulab Shah' and the group of Pakistani eunuchs who guard it.
Murad (which means desire; the English title was Eunuch's Motherhood), was an award winning biographical Telefilm drama made by Evergreen Media Europe for Pakistan's television channel Indus TV that aired in 2003. The cast had the country's top male television actors playing "hijras": Sohail Asghar, Nabeel, Qazi Wajid, Kamran Jilani. It was directed by Kamran Qureshi, written by Zafar Mairaj and produced by Iram Qureshi. It won both Best TeleFilm and Best Director awards at 2003 Indus Telefilm Festival.[69][70] The story revolves around "Saima", a trans woman, who adopts a helpless child "Murad" and her relationship with him against the backdrop of her struggling throughout her life and her "desire" for her son. She has sent him away to live at a hostel so she can earn a living as a dancer, after her son gets cross with her, due to teasing (verbal and sexual) they face while dancing. This was the first time that influential male actors came out to support "hijra" rights during interviews; noting that in Pakistani English at that time eunuch was the term to describe a transgender person, and "khwaja sara" (also khwaja sira) had not yet replaced what is now considered a derogatory term due to decades of heckling and name calling, "hijra".[71][72]
In 2004, Kamran Qureshi directed a trans drama, Moorat ("effigy," however, the English title was Eunuch's Wedding. It was produced by famous actor and producer Humayun Saeed and Abdullah Kadwani with more than a dozen star-studded cast members for a 33-episode series.[73][74] It was nominated for Best Drama Serial, Abid Ali for Best Actor, and Maria Wasti for Best Actress at the Lux Style Awards 2005.[69][75] The show was credited for making people understand the pain and abuse that khwaja sara (hijra) constantly endure when people make fun of the way they look or dress without knowing them or how they were naturally born this way. The story involves a young lady who is arranged to marry. It turns out her husband is transgender. The story unfolds trans community and their deprived and isolated world. It portrays eloquently how they, too, are not far away from the human emotions and feelings and their world not much different from the heterosexual community. Even though they are in plain sight, they are tthey are taboo subjects and are not taken seriously. This makes them suffer endlessly in silence wrapped in slurs. The 33-episode series therefore touches on transgender abuse, women abuse, poverty, immorality of arranged marriages, and child abuse.[76]
Bol (Urdu: بول meaning Speak), is a 2011 Urdu-language social drama Pakistani film. It concerns a patriarch, Hakim, who is a misogynist, a domestic abuser, a bigot, and a zealot who forces religion on his family. They face financial difficulties due to Hakim wanting a son. He rejects his transgender daughter, Saifi, as he wanted an heir and she identifies as a girl. Saifi is deeply loved by the rest of her family. As she grows up, men want to take advantage of her and she does not understand at first. However, her oldest sister intervenes and teaches Saifi about what kind of touching is inappropriate. As Saifi grows older, she is not allowed to leave the house. She finds her sister's dresses compelling and tries them on, revealing her gender identity. A neighbour played by famous South Asian singer Atif Aslam, who is in love with one of the sisters, gets Saifi a job at a place where they paint trucks, with the blessing of Saifi's sisters and mother. Saifi dresses like a boy; however, other boys sense her lack of self-esteem and eventually gang-rape her. She is saved when another transgender person, played by Almas Bobby (a transgender actor), finds her and takes her home. Hakim overhears Saifi telling her mother and Zainab what happened. When everybody is asleep, Hakim locks the room and suffocates his child for luring the men for the "shame" he would have to bear if the story got out.[77] It received several positive reviews from critics and went on to win the Best Hindi film award in IRDS Film awards 2011 by Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS).[78]
Outside South Asia
The novel Bombay Ice by Leslie Forbes features an important subplot involving the main character's investigation of the deaths of several hijra sex-workers.
The novel City of Djinns by William Dalrymple also features a chapter on hijras.
The novel A Son of the Circus by John Irving features a plot-line involving hijras.
In the graphic novel Habibi by Craig Thompson, the protagonist, Zam, is adopted by a group of hijras.
In the 2009 Brazilian soap opera Caminho das Índias (Portuguese: "The way to India"), hijras are shown in some occasions, especially at weddings and other ceremonies where they are paid for their blessing.
In the TV comedy Outsourced (2011), a hijra is hired by Charlie as a stripper for Rajiv's "bachelor party", much to Rajiv's utter horror.
A short film, under the direction of Jim Roberts, is being made by Rock Star Productions in which the protagonist is portrayed as a hijra. This film is set to be released on 1 May.[year needed][citation needed]
Kamran Ahmed Mirza is a popular gender performance artist in Oregon, United States.
Documentaries
Jareena, Portrait of a Hijda (1990)
Ladyboys (1992)
Bombay Eunuch (2001)
The Hijras: India's Third Gender (2001)
India's Ladyboys (2003)
Between the Lines: India's Third Gender (2005)
Middle Sexes (HBO documentary includes segment on modern Hijda) (2005)
Shabnam Mausi (2005)
The Hijras of India (BBC radio documentary)
Kiss the Moon (2009)
Call me Salma (2009)
Mohammed to Maya also titled Rites of Passage (2012)
One of the most striking and recognizable birds of the dry “Tumbesian Region” that encompasses parts of western Ecuador and northwestern Peru. No other bird in range has a similar blue, white, and black pattern. Adults have yellow eyes. Young birds have dark eyes and slightly duller plumage. Noisy gangs of these impressive birds roam through dry forest giving a wide variety of calls, many of which have an odd, metallic quality.
Reserva Jorupe, Ecuador. January 2010.
~Abraham Lincoln
This is a shot of the Roberto Clemente Bridge at night, from a recent photowalk. It was about 5°F that night, and I was stopping into every other little store I passed to warm up!! That is PNC Park where the Pittsburgh Pirates play on the left.
I don't mind invitations, but please no big, shiny, flashing, glitter graphics, they will be deleted. Thanks!
Follow me on Twitter
My blog: HDR Exposed
[ EXPLORE Feb 22~ #39]
The structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to Marin County. It is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California, and of the United States.
~~~
La structure relie la ville de San Francisco, de la pointe nord de la péninsule de San Francisco, à Marin County. C'est l'un des symboles les plus reconnus au niveau international de San Francisco, de la Californie et des États-Unis.
"Recognized as one of the most environmentally significant areas, approximately two-thirds of High Park remains in a natural state. Environmental management efforts within the Ravine Strategy and Biodiversity Strategy ensures the protection and preservation of this park. A jewel in the city’s park system, residents and visitors can enjoy its many wildlife, attractions, playgrounds and natural features year-round."
You may recognize her beautiful flowers -
Blue Flower - 1918 and Bella Donna - 1939
Fun Fact -
O'Keeffe recalled, the male artists resisted the idea that she too might paint the modern city. "The men decided they didn't want me to paint New York... they told me to 'leave New York to the men.'
I was furious." Then she painted a handful of skyscrapers.
Interesting to see some of the skyscrapers : )
City Night - 1926 and The Ritz Tower - 1928
I recognized you when snow was melting ....
_______
On explore Feb 1, 2015 #144
Thank you all so so much !
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Pigeons Recognize Human Faces. If you shoo a pigeon, that bird is likely to remember you and know to stay out of your way the next time you cross paths, according to a new study. Researchers found that wild, untrained pigeons can recognize individual people's faces and are not fooled by a change of clothes.
Kanaka Creek Regional Park is a regional park of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, located in the city of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, flanking both sides of Kanaka Creek from its confluence with the Fraser River just east of Haney and extending approximately 11 km (7 mi) up the creek to just south of the community of Webster's Corners. The Maple Ridge Fairgrounds are just east of the lower regions of the park, beyond them is the community of Albion. Derby Reach Regional Park is just across the Fraser in Langley.
A variety of plants and animals can be located in all 3 areas of the park and it is a popular spot for both Black Bear and Salmon populations. Kanaka Creek Regional Park has a rich history- the first purchase of land for the park by the City of Maple Ridge occurred in the late 1970s, and the land is the traditional unceded territory of the Katzie, Kwantlen, Matsqui, Musqueam, Semiahmoo, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Recently, misuse of the land has negatively changed parts of the park. To fix this issue, Metro Vancouver Regional Parks implemented a 20 year management plan in 2004 with the assistance of the Katzie First Nation among other groups, and the University of Victoria (UVIC) completed a restoration project in areas of the park in 2022.
Recreation
Kanaka Creek is widely recognized for its natural beauty, as well as recreational appeal. According to a local newspaper, the Daily Hive, Kanaka is the 8th most popular park in metro Vancouver, with 610,500 visitors in 2022. The park features walking, hiking, and biking trails publicly available to anyone who wants to use them. Along these walks there is plenty of flora and fauna to view. The park also has a lake in which visitors can fish, or canoe. The park is wheelchair accessible, and equipped with parking and public washrooms.
The 400 ha. park has three main areas. The Riverfront area adjacent to the Fraser and BC Hwy 7 has picnic tables and a boat-launch, suitable for launching canoes and kayaks for navigating the slow-moving waters of Kanaka Creek up as far as the 240th Street bridge. The Riverfront Trail winds along this stretch of the creek and has a number of three-story wooden viewing towers. Above 240th Street the stream is shallower and full of snags and not suitable for boating. Above that a popular swimming hole with slickrock slides is at Cliff Falls. There are twin falls on Kanaka Creek, one on each of its upper fork. Much of the upper area of the park is heavily forested, though hiking along the creek beds is feasible and a number of wooden walkways through the forest and along the creek have been established in the area.
Ref, Wikipedia
I truly appreciate your kind words and would like to thank-you all, for your overwhelming support.
~Christie
I'd recognize those ears anywhere :))
We've had a cold, rainy & dreary week here, so a lot of playing inside - he loves to jump on the bed and make a mess of it!
Forest Glade is recognized as one of Australia's finest private gardens. It has existed for almost one hundred years..
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Located on the southern slopes of Mount Macedon in Victoria, this magnificently landscaped garden covers fourteen acres (5.6 ha) and has four distinct themes:.
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The large English section with its huge exotic trees and masses of colour..
The delightful Japanese section complete with bonsai house..
The beautiful woodland area displaying masses of shade-loving plants..
The cool fern gully..
Each season brings its own spectacular visual feast. (From their brochure)
“pain and love have no borders,
even if we raise walls not to see the pain
and we put boundaries to not recognize love.”
(Enzo Bianchi)
“il dolore e l'amore non hanno frontiere,
anche se noi alziamo muri per non vedere il dolore
e mettiamo confini per non riconoscere l'amore.”
(Enzo Bianchi)
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click to activate the icon of slideshow: the small triangle inscribed in the small rectangle, at the top right, in the photostream;
or…. press L to enlarge;
clicca sulla piccola icona per attivare lo slideshow: sulla facciata principale del photostream, in alto a destra c'è un piccolo rettangolo (rappresenta il monitor) con dentro un piccolo triangolo nero;
oppure…. premi L per ingrandire l'immagine;
www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-...
www.fotografidigitali.it/gallery/2726/opere-italiane-segn...
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All the photos I present were taken in the town of Taormina (Sicily);
I made photos related to "street photography";
I made portraits of people I did not know, this certainly thanks to their sympathy and availability, I thank them very much;
I tried to capture the essence of minimal photographic stories, collected walking down the street ... in search of fleeting moments ...
For some photographs I used a particular photographic technique at the time of shooting, which in addition to capturing the surrounding space, also "inserted" a temporal dimension, with photos characterized by being moved because the exposure times were deliberately lengthened, they are confused -focused-imprecise-undecided ... the Anglo-Saxon term that encloses this photographic genre with a single word is "blur", these images were thus created during the shooting phase, and not as an effect created subsequently, in retrospect, in the post-production.
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Tutte le foto che presento sono state realizzate nella cittadina di Taormina (Sicilia);
ho realizzato foto riconducibili alla “street photography”;
ho realizzato dei ritratti di persone che non conoscevo, questo certamente grazie alla loro simpatia e disponibilità, li ringrazio davvero molto;
ho cercato di cogliere al volo l’essenza di storie fotografiche minime, raccolte camminando per la strada ... alla ricerca di attimi fugaci s-fuggenti ...
Ho utilizzato per alcune fotografie una tecnica fotografica particolare al momento dello scatto, che oltre a catturare lo spazio circostante, ha "inserito" anche una dimensione temporale, con foto caratterizzate dall’essere mosse poiché volutamente sono stati allungati i tempi di esposizione, sono confuse-sfocate-imprecise-indecise...il termine anglosassone che racchiude con una sola parola questo genere fotografico è "blur", queste immagini sono state così realizzate in fase di scatto, e non come un effetto creato successivamente, a posteriori, in fase di post-produzione.
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In Japan, the chrysanthemum is recognized as the national flower because it is the Imperial Emblem of Japan. It is printed on the cover of a Japanese passport, you can see it in Japanese embassies abroad, and Shinto shrines. It is also displayed on diplomatic buildings and any other place where the symbolic state authority of His Majesty the Emperor should be demonstrated. The origin of this symbol dates back to the time of Emperor Go-Toba (1180 - 1239), with His Majesty choosing the flower as his personal emblem
Dark-eyed Juncos are neat, even flashy little sparrows that flit about forest floors of the western mountains and Canada, then flood the rest of North America for winter. They’re easy to recognize by their crisp (though extremely variable) markings and the bright white tail feathers they habitually flash in flight. Dark-eyed Juncos are among the most abundant forest birds of North America.
Surrey BC Canada
Recognizable image in black & white because it was a rainy day. Although at the moment of this capture it didn't rain for awhile.
Crow in the spotlight ...
Sony ILCE-7R
300mm F2.8 G
The mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) is a perching duck species found in East Asia. It is medium-sized, at 41–49 cm (16–19 in) long with a 65–75 cm (26–30 in) wingspan. It is closely related to the North American wood duck, the only other member of the genus Aix. Aix is an Ancient Greek word used by Aristotle to refer to an unknown diving bird, and galericulata is the Latin for a wig, derived from galerum, a cap or bonnet.
The adult male is a striking and unmistakable bird. It has a red bill, large white crescent above the eye and reddish face and "whiskers". The breast is purple with two vertical white bars, and the flanks ruddy, with two orange "sails" at the back. The female is similar to female wood duck, with a white eye-ring and stripe running back from the eye, but is paler below, has a small white flank stripe, and a pale tip to its bill.
Both the males and females have crests, but the crest is more pronounced on the male.
Like many other species of ducks, the male undergoes a moult after the mating season into eclipse plumage. When in eclipse plumage, the male looks similar to the female, but can be told apart by their bright yellow-orange beak, lack of any crest, and a less-pronounced eye-stripe.
Mandarin ducklings are almost identical in appearance to wood ducklings, and very similar to mallard ducklings. The ducklings can be distinguished from mallard ducklings because the eye-stripe of mandarin ducklings (and wood ducklings) stops at the eye, while in mallard ducklings it reaches all the way to the bill.
The hooded crow (Corvus cornix) (also called hoodie is a Eurasian bird species in the Corvus genus. Widely distributed, it is also known locally as Scotch crow and Danish crow. In Ireland it is called grey crow, just as in the Slavic languages and in Danish. In German it is called "mist crow" ("Nebelkrähe"). Found across Northern, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle East, it is an ashy grey bird with black head, throat, wings, tail, and thigh feathers, as well as a black bill, eyes, and feet. Like other corvids, it is an omnivorous and opportunistic forager and feeder.
It is so similar in morphology and habits to the carrion crow (Corvus corone), for many years they were considered by most authorities to be geographical races of one species. Hybridization observed where their ranges overlapped added weight to this view. However, since 2002, the hooded crow has been elevated to full species status after closer observation; the hybridisation was less than expected and hybrids had decreased vigour. Within the hooded crow species, four subspecies are recognized, with one, the Mesopotamian crow, possibly distinct enough to warrant species status itself.
Except for the head, throat, wings, tail, and thigh feathers, which are black and mostly glossy, the plumage is ash-grey, the dark shafts giving it a streaky appearance. The bill and legs are black; the iris dark brown. Only one moult occurs, in autumn, as in other crow species. The male is the larger bird, otherwise the sexes are alike. Their flight is slow and heavy and usually straight. Their length varies from 48 to 52 cm (19 to 20 in). When first hatched, the young are much blacker than the parents. Juveniles have duller plumage with bluish or greyish eyes and initially a red mouth. Wingspan is 98 cm (39 in) and weight is on average 510 g.
The mallard or wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands and South Africa. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.
The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on wings and belly, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black speculum feathers which commonly also include iridescent blue feathers especially among males. Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domesticated ducks.
The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species although it is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks. It is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long (of which the body makes up around two-thirds), has a wingspan of 81–98 cm (32–39 in),[16] and weighs 0.72–1.58 kg (1.6–3.5 lb). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 25.7 to 30.6 cm (10.1 to 12.0 in), the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) and the tarsus is 4.1 to 4.8 cm (1.6 to 1.9 in).
The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and white collar which demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey brown wings, and a pale grey belly. The rear of the male is black, with the dark tail having white borders. The bill of the male is a yellowish orange tipped with black while that of the female is generally darker ranging from black to mottled orange. The female mallard is predominantly mottled with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat and neck with a darker crown and eye-stripe.
Owing to their highly 'malleable' genetic code, Mallards can display a large amount of variation, as seen here with this female, who displays faded or 'apricot' plumage.
Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple blue speculum feathers edged with white, prominent in flight or at rest, though temporarily shed during the annual summer moult. Upon hatching, the plumage colouring of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face (with streaks by the eyes) and black on the back (with some yellow spots) all the way to the top and back of the head. Its legs and bill are also black. As it nears a month in age, the duckling's plumage will start becoming drab, looking more like the female (though its plumage is more streaked) and its legs will lose their dark grey colouring. Two months after hatching, the fledgling period has ended and the duckling is now a juvenile. Between three and four months of age, the juvenile can finally begin flying as its wings are fully developed for flight (which can be confirmed by the sight of purple speculum feathers). Its bill will soon lose its dark grey colouring and its sex can finally be distinguished visually by three factors. The bill colouring is yellow in males, black and orange for females. The breast feathers are reddish-brown for males, brown for females. The centre tail feather is curled for males (called a drake feather), straight for females.[citation needed]
During the final period of maturity leading up to adulthood (6–10 months of age), the plumage of female juveniles remains the same while the plumage of male juveniles slowly changes to its characteristic colours.[citation needed] This plumage change also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period. The adulthood age for mallards is 14 months and the average life expectancy is 3 years, but they can live to twenty.
In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours. Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc., where they are rare but increasing in availability.
A noisy species, the female has a deeper quack stereotypically associated with ducks. Male mallards also make a sound which is phonetically similar to that of the female, but it is a deep and raspy sound which can also sound like mek or whak. When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, Females vocalise differently, making a call which sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack. They will also hiss if the nest or their offspring are threatened or interfered with.
The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds. Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds. Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimize heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall. Examples of this rule in birds are rare, as they lack external ears. However, the bill of ducks is very well supplied with blood vessels and is vulnerable to cold.[citation needed]
Due to the malleability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids such as Brewer's duck (mallard × gadwall, Anas strepera).
Source:
Wikipedia
One of the Macon’s most recognizable landmarks, the Mercer University School of Law was modeled after Independence Hall.
Macon, Bibb County, Georgia USA
[0134-D7500-Neo]
© 2025 Mike McCall
Recognizing the need for security, Odge ventured into Hweg Shul to the local droid merchant. Though there were many astro-mechs to choose from, an extra set of eyes is what Odge needed, so a protocol droid was what appealed to Odge.
With only a few to choose from, Odge conversed with a TC unit who seemed rather alert and much less uppity than a 3PO-series droid. TC-33 agreed to come to the A-wing build and assist.
Catatonia
is a syndrome of psychological and motorological disturbances. In the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV) it is not recognized as a separate disorder, but is associated with psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia (catatonic type), bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other mental disorders, as well as drug abuse or overdose (or both). It may also be seen in many medical disorders including infections (such as encephalitis), autoimmune disorders, focal neurologic lesions (including strokes), metabolic disturbances and abrupt or overly rapid benzodiazepine withdrawal.
Patients with catatonia may experience an extreme loss of motor skills or even constant hyperactive motor activity. Catatonic patients will sometimes hold rigid poses for hours and will ignore any external stimuli. Patients with catatonic excitement can die of exhaustion if not treated. Patients may also show stereotyped, repetitive movements. They may show specific types of movement such as waxy flexibility, in which they maintain positions after being placed in them by someone else, or gegenhalten (lit. "counterhold"), in which they resist movement in proportion to the force applied by the examiner. They may repeat meaningless phrases or speak only to repeat what the examiner says.
Bad day. Bad bad day.
My friends went to Chicago today to go see the Lion King and eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Where am I at? Sitting on my butt in my room. Why? Because I'm too effing poor to do crap.
Then Garry calls this morning on his way home from work and tells me that he had been asked to go into work tonight. We were supposed to take tonight and tomorrow night and celebrate our anniversary. Is that going to happen now? No. Did he even bother to call me any time in the last seven hours? No.
Haven't eaten anything yet today because the spot doesn't open until 6. Thankfully that's only a half hour away...then I can finally eat something. Will probably be crap because this school could care less about those of us stuck on campus during the weekend...but it's something.
However, I do like this picture. I have high expectations for how it'll do...which sucks cause, with the way my day is going, this thing will be totally ignored by everyone. *sigh* but I still like it...so that's good at least.
Pick your sauce! National Spaghetti Day on January 4 recognizes that long, thin cylindrical pasta of Italian and Sicilian origin. Usually made from semolina flour, this pasta has been a worldwide favorite for ages and loved by millions.
There are a variety of different pasta dishes that are based on spaghetti from spaghetti ala Carbonara or garlic and oil to spaghetti with tomato sauce, meat sauce, bolognese, Alfredo sauce, clam sauce or other sauces. Spaghetti dishes are traditionally served topped with grated hard cheeses such as Pecorino Romano, Parmesan and Grana Padano.
The word spaghetti is plural for the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning “thin string” or “twine.”
American restaurants offered Spaghetti around the end of the 19th century as Spaghetti Italienne (which is believed to have consisted of noodles cooked past al dente and a mild tomato sauce flavored with easily found spices and vegetables such as cloves, bay leaves and garlic). Decades later, oregano and basil were added to many recipes.
There is significant debate on the origin of spaghetti. However, we do know that pasta has been consumed for many, many years.
Sung to the tune of “On Top of Old Smoky,” the fun children’s song, “On Top of Spaghetti” was written and originally sung by folk singer Tom Glazer with the Do-Re-Mi Children’s Chorus in 1963.
“On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.
It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out of the door.”
An abundant breeder of the northeastern coniferous forests, the Black-throated Green Warbler is easy to recognize by sight and sound. Its dark black bib and bright yellow face are unique amongst Eastern birds, and its persistent song of "zoo-zee, zoo-zoo-zee" is easy to remember.
The Persistence of Memory is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí and one of the most recognizable works of Surrealism. First shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, since 1934 the painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, which received it from an anonymous donor. It is widely recognized and frequently referred to in popular culture, and sometimes referred to by more descriptive titles, such as "The Melting Clocks", "The Soft Watches" or "The Melting Watches".
The well-known surrealist piece introduced the image of the soft melting pocket watch. It epitomizes Dalí's theory of "softness" and "hardness", which was central to his thinking at the time. As Dawn Adès wrote, "The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order". This interpretation suggests that Dalí was incorporating an understanding of the world introduced by Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity. Asked by Ilya Prigogine whether this was the case, Dalí replied that the soft watches were not inspired by the theory of relativity, but by the surrealist perception of a Camembert melting in the sun.
The year prior to painting the Persistence of Memory, Dali developed his "paranoiac-critical method," deliberately inducing psychotic hallucinations to inspire his art. He remarked, "The difference between a madman and me is that I am not mad." This quote highlights Dali's awareness of his mental state. Despite his engagement in activities that could be seen as insane, Dali maintained that he was not actually mad.
It is possible to recognize a human figure in the middle of the composition, in the strange "monster" (with much texture near its face, and much contrast and tone in the picture) that Dalí used in several contemporary pieces to represent himself – the abstract form becoming something of a self-portrait, reappearing frequently in his work. The creature seems to be based on a figure from the Paradise section of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, which Dalí had studied. It can be read as a "fading" creature, one that often appears in dreams where the dreamer cannot pinpoint the creature's exact form and composition. The creature has one closed eye with several eyelashes, suggesting that it is also in a dream state. The iconography may refer to a dream that Dalí himself had experienced, and the clocks may symbolize the passing of time as one experiences it in sleep or the persistence of time in the eyes of the dreamer.
The orange watch at the bottom left of the painting is covered in ants; Dalí often used ants in his paintings as a symbol of decay. A fly sits on the watch next to the orange watch. The fly appears to be casting a human shadow as the sun hits it. The Persistence of Memory employs "the exactitude of realist painting techniques" to depict imagery more likely to be found in dreams than in waking consciousness.
The craggy rocks to the right represent the tip of Cap de Creus peninsula in north-eastern Catalonia. Many of Dalí's paintings were inspired by the landscapes of his life in Catalonia. The strange and foreboding shadow in the foreground of this painting is a reference to Puig Pení, a mountain in the northeast corner of Catalonia.