The water castle Gemen is in the Münsterland, in the former swamp area of the Bocholt Aa an smal creek. Although the name suggests otherwise, it is today at a palace. His former Castle Square is today Borkener - Gemen district.

The castle was built from the gradual rebuilding of more than 900 years old water castle which was built by the nobles of Gemen, one of the most influential Westphalian nobility of his time. It stands on two islands that are surrounded by an extensive systems of chanels. The palace was the center of the rule Gemen.

Today's fun fact - Black Swans were presumed not to exist because there was only ever records of white ones. Then when Europeans discovered they did in fact exist, in WA Australia, the phrase "black swan" was coined. The Black Swan by scholar Nassim Taleb, was ranked by the Sunday Times one of the 12 most influential books since World War II. Taleb's black swan theory states that dramatic unexpected events matter more to history than regular happenings.

Bit simpler for me, I just like to photograph them on the local lake. Especially at sunset. Like little floating silhouettes. (bit of an older pic, revisiting some unloved pics from my Flickr exile years)

Porto is the second-largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon, and the name “Porto” itself influenced the name of the country “Portugal”. Established by the Celts on the mouth of the Douro River, it was occupied by the Romans during the fourth century, transforming it into an influential commercial port and renaming it “Portus Cale”. Porto is best known for two things: its river, the Douro, an evermore popular choice for river cruises, and its port. ... One of the oldest cities in Europe, its maze of steep and narrow cobbled streets is home to beautiful plazas, churches and houses with colourfully tiled façades.

Dear friends,

I was put on the list for the selection of the 20 most influential street photographer of 2016. If someone likes my work you can vote for me until 26 May to:

www.streethunters.net/blog/2016/05/20/vote-for-the-20-mos...

Many thanks!!!

Stowe is one of the most Well known house and gardens in Georgian England. Created by Viscount Cobham in the grounds of his family home from 1717, it reflected a programme of ideas based on Cobham’s hugely influential network of political connections .

Naples Botanical Gardens

Southwest Florida

USA

I can't do without a Northern Mockingbird at least one day a month.

The northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) is the only mockingbird commonly found in North America. This bird is mainly a permanent resident, but northern birds may move south during harsh weather.

This species has rarely been observed in Europe. The northern mockingbird is known for its mimicking ability, as reflected by the meaning of its scientific name, "many-tongued mimic".

The northern mockingbird is an omnivore. It eats both insects and fruits. It is often found in open areas and forest edges but forages in grassy land.

The northern mockingbird breeds in southeastern Canada, the United States, northern Mexico, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and the Greater Antilles.

The northern mockingbird is listed as of Least Concern according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The mockingbird is influential in United States culture, being the state bird of five states, appearing in book titles, songs and lullabies, and making other appearances in popular culture. – Wikipedia

Stowe is one of the most Well known house and gardens in Georgian England. Created by Viscount Cobham in the grounds of his family home from 1717, it reflected a programme of ideas based on Cobham’s hugely influential network of political connections .

This stately mansion was built for J. Russell Jones, an influential Civil War patriot who later would become a U.S. Marshall, steamship owner, chairman of the Republican Party, and Minister Resident to Belgium during the Administration of his friend, President Ulysses S. Grant. Built in 1857, the Italianate style Jones House, now known as the Belvedere Mansion, is the largest mansion in Galena. Completely restored, Belvedere Mansion is open for tours.

The mansion is a contributing structure in the Galena Historic District. The district encompasses 85 percent of the City of Galena and includes more than 800 properties. The Galena Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, with modifications in 2013.

Galena is the seat of Jo Daviess County in the northwest corner of Illinois. This is the unglaciated area of northwestern Illinois. The rolling hills, history and abundant 19th century architecture draws visitors from throughout the country. The population of Galena at the 2020 census was 3,101.

Stars the most influential symbol in our hierographic system. From money to sweets, from authorities to praise, we are indoctrinated with stars from the nursery rhymes and up to death. Shine it on Star Bright.

Stars the most influential symbol in our hierographic system. From authorities to praise, we are indoctrinated with stars from the nursery rhymes and up to death. Shine it on Star Bright, from rising star to Shooting star to falling star. The star is deeply embedded in everyone's mind.

This stately mansion was built for J. Russell Jones, a influential Civil War patriot who later would become a U.S. Marshall, steamship owner, chairman of the Republican Party, and Minister Resident to Belgium during the Administration of his friend, President Ulysses S. Grant. Built in 1857, the Italianate style Jones House, now known as the Belvedere Mansion, is the largest mansion in Galena. Completely restored, Belvedere Mansion is open for tours.

The mansion is a contributing structure in the Galena Historic District. The district encompasses 85 percent of the City of Galena and includes more than 800 properties. The Galena Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, with modifications in 2013.

Galena is the seat of Jo Daviess County in the northwest corner of Illinois. This is the unglaciated area of northwestern Illinois. The rolling hills, history and abundant 19th century architecture draws visitors from throughout the country. The estimated population of Galena in 2019 was 3,158.

An influential photographer I once heard said 'If you want to take more interesting images, point your lens at more interesting subjects.'

That explains a lot of my failures. I am often pointing my lens at mundane everyday objects, interested in some detail or pattern or texture, or some abstract thought. Normal people, among whom I walk, are bemused - why on earth do I think that justifies a permanent record? I have no answer...

But I like it :)

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image.

[Much mangled using Affinity on the iPad.

The bulk of the look came from creating two copies of the image layer, adding a box blur to the lower copy and blending the top copy with Multiply blend mode. The lower layer also had some diffusion blur, and the upper layer some colour enhancement using Curves in LAB mode - just increasing the gradient of the lines for the colour channels A and B - and a fair whack of High Pass sharpening. There was no selective work though with masking - just a vignette.]

This mansion was built for J. Russell Jones, a influential Civil War patriot who later would become a U.S. Marshall, steamship owner, chairman of the Republican Party, and Minister Resident to Belgium during the Administration of his friend, President Ulysses S. Grant. Built in 1857, the Italianate style Jones House, now known as the Belvedere Mansion, is the largest mansion in Galena. Completely restored, Belvedere Mansion is open for tours.

The mansion is a contributing structure in the Galena Historic District. The district encompasses 85 percent of the City of Galena and includes more than 800 properties. The Galena Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, with modifications in 2013.

Galena is the seat of Jo Daviess County in the northwest corner of Illinois. This is the unglaciated area of northwestern Illinois. The rolling hills, history and abundant 19th century architecture draws visitors from throughout the country. The estimated population of Galena in 2019 was 3,158.

Collective 52 Photo Project -Influential Photographers 2/12

Andreas Gursky.

After Gursky's original, Paris, Montparnasse, 1993. d2xsarh0aq9fsq.cloudfront.net/00/68/18/28/0068182814.fb69...

Gursky's original is on a monumental scale and my interpretation is just that, an interpretation. Lacking a medium + format camera and the ability to photo shop something suitable I went for the feeling, as best as I could on a smaller scale.

odc - shoes

Some inspiring and influential people have also shared similar messages.

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."

― Dali Lama

"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."

― Plato

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

― Aesop

“The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful then a thousand heads bowing in prayer.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

― Mark Twain

“Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary.”

― J.M. Barrie

Brutalist architecture is an influential and polarizing architectural style that emerged in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by its raw, robust, and utilitarian aesthetic, often featuring large, exposed concrete structures. Brutalist buildings display a sense of monumentality and solidity, with bold geometric forms and a distinct lack of decorative embellishments. The style prioritizes functionality and the honest expression of materials, focusing on the inherent qualities of concrete. While some consider Brutalism to be visually austere, proponents of the style appreciate its uncompromising honesty, the sculptural qualities of its forms, and its ability to evoke a sense of awe and timelessness.

St. Leonards Centre

Crows Nest

June, 2023

Umberto Boccioni

( 19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor. He helped shape the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement as one of its principal figures. Despite his short life, his approach to the dynamism of form and the deconstruction of solid mass guided artists long after his death. His works are held by many public art museums, and in 1988 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City organized a major retrospective of 100 pieces.

© All rights reserved

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart[a] (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.

Born in Salzburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his early death at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death have been much mythologized.

He composed more than 600 works, many of which are acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is considered among the greatest classical composers of all time, and his influence on Western music is profound. Ludwig van Beethoven composed his early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote: "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years".

He lived in Paris in 1778. (from Wikipedia)

Happy 265th Birthday, Wolfie!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ​ (Salzburgo, 27 de enero de 1756-Viena, 5 de diciembre de 1791) fue un compositor, pianista, director de orquesta y profesor del antiguo Arzobispado de Salzburgo, actualmente parte de Austria, maestro del Clasicismo, considerado como uno de los músicos más influyentes y destacados de la historia.

La obra mozartiana abarca todos los géneros musicales de su época e incluye más de seiscientas creaciones, en su mayoría reconocidas como obras maestras de la música sinfónica, concertante, de cámara, para fortepiano, operística y coral, logrando una popularidad y difusión internacional.

Mozart vivió en Paris en 1778. (tomado de Wikipedia).

Feliz Cumpleaños 265, Wolfie!

The Symphony No. 31 in D major, K. 297/300a, better known as the Paris Symphony, is one of the most famous symphonies by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The work was composed in 1778 during Mozart's unsuccessful job-hunting sojourn in Paris. The composer was then 22 years old. "Mozart's Paris Symphony is quite noisy. It has vigorous, stirring tuttis, with a lively violin line and an active line for the basses, lending the music extra animation. The actual thematic matter is relatively conventional, more a matter of figures than melodies, but there is not development as such, and most of the working-out of ideas comes at their presentation."

youtu.be/J0OwPnrRw9o

True is that I am still experimenting with a new camera and lens (Leica M8 plus Voigtlaender 40/1.4; here at F11). Using a rangefinder camera is quite a challenge for me and I will not go into any pros and cons (judge for yourself). However, I wish to combine these experiments with actual issues, and one of these is what we are going to do with the traditions we have inherited from Greek and Roman antiquity. These traditions (and their historical re-incarnations as it were) have been profoundly influential for our political thinking, for developing the scientific method and culturally of great importance too. In the West it was used to liberate the human mind from religious totalitarianism. However, in the 21st century we live in a world that is culturally divers and religiously extremely active. Rethinking antiquity and Enlightenment, a lot of cracks have become obvious. Social inequality and slavery and the stigmatising of the other are featuring prominently. "What have the Romans ever done to prevent the transatlantic slave trade?" I could ask rhetorically. The question is whether we can pick the liberating traditions only and disregard what we think is unacceptable.

Charles, the Prince of Wales and future King of England, wrote an influential book called "Harmony". In it he outlined his vision for a balanced way of life, being completely sensitive to the requirements of a sustainable environment, and also maintaining a productive life. This is a vision worth striving for. Balance and harmony are two words that we desperately need to rediscover in our fractured world.

After retiring from the Australian senate in 2012, Dr Bob Brown decided to gift "Oura Oura" to the Australian people. He did this through entrusting it to the care of Bush Heritage Australia.

Bush Heritage Australia is an independent not-for-profit that buys and manages land, and also partners with Aboriginal people, to conserve our magnificent landscapes and irreplaceable native species forever.

www.bushheritage.org.au/

Nature, harmony and a balanced lifestyle. That's what we need today.

Virginia Woolf statue on Richmond Riverside.

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device.

Virginia Woolf was born in South Kensington, London, into an affluent and intellectual family as the seventh child of Julia Prinsep Jackson and Leslie Stephen. She grew up in a blended household of eight children, including her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell. Educated at home in English classics and Victorian literature, Woolf later attended King’s College London, where she studied classics and history and encountered early advocates for women’s rights and education.

After the death of her father in 1904, Woolf and her family moved to the bohemian Bloomsbury district, where she became a founding member of the influential Bloomsbury Group. She married Leonard Woolf in 1912, and together they established the Hogarth Press in 1917, which published much of her work. They eventually settled in Sussex in 1940, maintaining their involvement in literary circles throughout their lives.

Woolf began publishing professionally in 1900 and rose to prominence during the interwar period with novels like Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), as well as the feminist essay A Room of One’s Own (1929). Her work became central to 1970s feminist criticism and remains influential worldwide, having been translated into over 50 languages. Woolf’s legacy endures through extensive scholarship, cultural portrayals, and tributes such as memorials, societies, and university buildings bearing her name.

The sculpture pays tribute to the novelist who drowned herself in the River Ouse in Lewes after prolonged mental health problems.

Happy Bench Monday!

“A portrait is not made in a camera, but on either side of it.” - Edward Steichen (influential Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator).

When it was my fortieth birthday, some many moons ago, as a gift to myself I commissioned a portrait of myself by a well-known and highly regarded society painter. I decided to wear a theatre jacket I had designed myself, made of Japanese silver and white brocade featuring a pattern of chrysanthemums in hexagons which I wore to a charity ball earlier that year, and I am holding one of my Great Grandmother’s tortoiseshell handled dyed ostrich feather Court fans from 1923. I sat for the artist in three separate day sittings, and she also took photographs of me. I asked her to pay particular attention to my costume, which I am very proud of, and also my jewellery, as I was wearing a mixture of inherited antique family rings and gifts from family for significant birthdays. The rings included an Art Deco cocktail ring of garnets and pearls, several gold and diamond rings, including my Great Grandmother’s engagement ring from the end of the Nineteenth Century, and an Art Deco diamond and sapphire ring set in platinum from Vienna. Not only did the portrait capture my likeness well, it is beautiful, and she has authentically captured the details of my costume and my jewellery.

The theme for "Looking Close on Friday" the 22nd of August is "details of a painting" which requires me to photograph things people may miss unless you get up close to it; not the entire painting. When I read the theme, I immediately thought of my fortieth birthday portrait. Although I have several other portraits painted for significant years of my life, this is by far the biggest and hangs just inside the entrance to my house, welcoming guests across the threshold. Being the biggest, it is the one where one could potentially miss those fine details, and because I was especially pleased with the artist’s reproduction of my costume and my jewellery, I have decided to focus on them for this week’s theme. I hope you like my choice, and that it makes you smile!

The Monthly Challenge

Graham Fagen is one of the most influential artists working in Scotland today. Throughout his career as an artist, Fagen has regularly incorporated elements of his own national, cultural and social identity within his work. Often using the artifice of theatre for the development of a narrative, Fagen uses the 16th century Venetian palace as an historic backdrop for his presentation, choreographing a new body of work across four rooms of the palazzo to create a path through which visitors can effectively become performers within the piece.

Drawing on his long-term commitment to collaboration across multiple art forms and disciplines, Fagen brought together internationally renowned composer Sally Beamish, the musicians of Scottish Ensemble, reggae singer and musician Ghetto Priest and music producer Adrian Sherwood to realise an ambitious installation. Sound that draws on very different musical traditions – Scottish folk songs, classical music and reggae – pervaded the rooms of Palazzo Fontana, creating a melancholic and ambiguous body of work within the surroundings of one of the world’s most prestigious visual art exhibitions.

Confucius is well known as one of the great philosophers of ancient China and highly influential in the development of Confucianism, which has dominated thinking and culture in East Asia to this day.

As such, the Confucius Temple in Nanjing does well to honor him with a statue of him at the grounds of the temple.

He was also a pioneer of photography at night ...

Born into an upper-middle-class family in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, Davis started on the trumpet in his early teens. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Alton, Illinois.

The Influential Geisha

Villa de Leyva's best museum features works by one of Colombia's most influential painters, sculptors, writers and historians, Luis Alberto Acuña (1904–93), who was inspired by sources ranging from Muisca mythology to contemporary art. Set up in the mansion where Acuña lived for the last 15 years of his life, this museum is the most comprehensive collection of his work in Colombia.

There's a fine patio containing some of Acuña's indigenous-themed murals and a little shop out front. If the door's closed, ring the bell.

Historians agree: Amos Northup’s Graham Blue Streak is one of the most influential automotive designs of the 1930s. What makes it so noteworthy? Let’s take a look.

The Graham brothers—Joseph, Robert, and Ray—were successful entrepreneurs, the kind of investors we call venture capitalists today. Their many enterprises included agriculture, glass, and truck manufacturing, and for a time they managed the giant Dodge Brothers organization for the investment bank Dillion, Read & Company. For their final foray into the auto industry, in June of 1927 they acquired Paige-Detroit and quickly put their their stamp on the Motor City car maker, renaming the products Graham-Paige and then simply Graham.

​

On December 8, 1931, the second-series 1932 Graham Model 57 Blue Streak was introduced, featuring a groundbreaking body design by Amos Northup. The Blue Streak look, which Graham continued through 1935, was a genuine style setter as much of the industry followed its direction. “The most imitated car on the road,” boasted the Graham ads. While many of the Blue Streak’s innovations seem evolutionary, a logical and natural progression from one era to the next, the credit goes to Graham and Northup for seeing the future and executing it.

While the catalog illustration above is a tad idealized, it effectively shows what made the Graham so fashion forward. Arrows have been added to indicate the key advances.

Most notably, the front and rear fender sweeps have been skirted in behind the wheels. Concealing the exposed chassis and mechanical components, the fender valences also create a longer, smoother profile.

The grille shell and windshield have been laid back at a sporty angle, finally breaking from decades of horse-drawn carriage tradition toward a more streamlined look. Additionally, the radiator cap has been removed from the top of the shell and tucked away under the hood, another step into modernity.

The headlamp buckets have been tucked in close to the body and fenders and painted body color, the better to blend them into the overall package.

While the rendering doesn’t show it well, Graham was an early adopter of metallic-type paint finishes. But instead of the aluminum particles used in later pigments, this paint contained guanin, the photonic crystal that gives fish scales their iridescence. Available colors in Graham’s Pearl Essence Finish, as it was called, included Avon Blue Pearl and Opalescent Gunmetal.

​

As the in-house designer for Murray Body Company of Detroit, Northup performed styling duties for a number of independent makes, including Willys, Hupp, and Reo. Since the smaller automakers lacked dedicated styling studios, body suppliers Murray, Briggs, and Hayes included design services to attract their business. Other noteworthy Northup designs include the Reo Royale and Willys 77, but the Blue Streak can be considered the most important of his efforts—a tipping point in 1930s car design.

The innovations weren’t limited to styling. To lower the stance, chief engineer Louis Thoms dispensed with the traditional rear frame kickup and crafted what Graham called a deep banjo frame, with the rear live axle captured in a pair of pass-throughs in the frame rails (above). The benefits included a 2.5-inch reduction in overall height and a more torsionally rigid structure.

​

To increase roll resistance, the parallel leaf springs front and rear were mounted outboard of the frame rails. Meanwhile, the track was widened to 60.5 inches front and 61 inches rear—not just to improve cornering, it is said, but also to sweeten the car’s visual proportions in height versus width.

More big news came from Graham came in 1934, when the automaker became the first to offer supercharging on a popular-priced car on the Model 69 Custom Eight. Reportedly based on the Schwitzer-Cummins technology used on the Duesenberg SJ, the Graham setup sported a 7.5-inch centrifugal blower turning at 5.75 times engine speed via an external accessory shaft. Output was increased from 95 to 135 horsepower on the 265.5 CID straight eight, producing a 10 mph increase in top speed and a significant boost in midrange punch. In the following year, a supercharged version of the six-cylinder Graham was introduced as well (GOCI Note: Supercharging on the six-cylinder line actually began two years after the eight - Bill McCall). It’s been noted that Graham built more supercharged models than the Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg marques combined.

In 2017 the Blue Streak series was recognized again as a 1933 Graham Deluxe Eight was enrolled in the National Historic Vehicle Register (GOCI Note: Bulgari's car is actually the 119-inch wheelbase Model 64 Standard Eight and not a “Deluxe Eight” - Bill McCall). To mark the event, the Golden Tan Pearl sedan, owned by noted collector Nicola Bulgari, was photographed in the driveway of Amos Northup’s former home in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, a Detroit suburb (above). Photo courtesy Historic Vehicle Association.

Thanks to Bill McGuire, from Mac's Motor City Garage for this comprehensive and thoughtful history of the Graham Blue Streak.

Some additional tidbits: Erwin George Baker, also known as "Cannonball" Baker, drove a 1933 Graham Blue streak across the country in 53.5 hours, setting a record that stood for almost 40 years.

Automobile production from Graham - Paige ceased in 1940, and its automotive assets were acquired by Kaiser-Frazer in 1947.

Looking through Gursky's photos is a delight. There are so many lines and tiny details. And he approaches things straight-on and aligned perfectly, which I rarely do, so this was a challenge. I found this image in my archives and applied some processing so it would take on that Gursky style....kind of. :o))

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©Christine A. Owens 2.15.18

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I really appreciate your comments and faves. I'm not a hoarder of contacts, but enjoy real-life, honest people. You are much more likely to get my comments and faves in return if you fit the latter description. Just sayin. :oD

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If you like b/w photography and/or poetry check out my page at:

expressionsbychristine.blogspot.com/</a

The botanical garden, the Jochumhof, goes back on the late eighteenth-century manorial gardens of Steyl, the pretty monastic village on the right bank of the Meuse River just south of Tegelen. In the course of the nineteenth century the village became increasingly monastic due to the influx of devout Catholics from the Germany of the so-called Kulturkampf (1872-1878) during which they were persecuted by the protestant state. Steyl, conveniently located close to the German border, became a village of monasteries. One of the monastic orders that trained missionaries here was the wide-ranging Societas Verbum Dei. Part of their training was in biology. Most famous of its teachers was Father Peter Jochum (1890-1979) who founded his botanical garden in 1933 and happily nurtured the plants and seeds his students sent him from afar. The monastic movement in The Netherlands and also here in Limburg has fallen into steep decline and the garden is now in secular hands. But it's still lovingly cared for and a delight to visit.

Here in the Greenhouse is a Justicia, named by great Carolus Linnaeus for the influential Scottish horticulturalist James Justice (1698-1763). Carnea was first described in English in 1831. It hails from Rio de Janeiro.

Chess is a war game when all is said and done. The aim is to capture the opposing King. Even if the Chinese did not actually invent the rudiments of chess, they certainly seized upon it as a way to strategise for war.

The most famous book on war was also written in China, and it is still studied prolifically today for its applications to situations that involve competition and struggle.

"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu is an enduring classic: “The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The work, which is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun", also spelled Sunzi), is composed of 13 chapters. Each one is devoted to a different set of skills (or "art") related to warfare and how it applies to military strategy and tactics. For almost 1,500 years it was the lead text in an anthology that was formalized as the Seven Military Classics by Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1080. The Art of War remains the most influential strategy text in East Asian warfare and has influenced both Far Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, legal strategy, lifestyles and beyond." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War

The full text in audio:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxcMRkqaQdw

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) was one of the most influential poets of the Romantic movement, known for his celebration of nature.

Born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, he spent much of his life in the Lake District, in a landscape that deeply influenced his work.

In 1799, he moved to Dove Cottage, where he lived with his sister Dorothy and also from 1802 with his wife Mary. This period marked some of his most creative years, during which he wrote key poems such as I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and worked on his autobiographical masterpiece, The Prelude.

Wordsworth then spent four years living at Allan Bank, before moving to Rydal Mount in 1813, where he spent the rest of his life.

Wordsworth chose to be buried in Grasmere at St Oswald’s Church. His grave, alongside those of his wife Mary and sister Dorothy and other members of his family sees thousands of visitors a year.

I loved studying Kertesz's photographs. He displayed a wonderful eye for light and shadows. When I did a Google search of his images there were actually a few that looked like some in my archives. But I went ahead and used this one I took today of some tree shadows on a snowy hillside.

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©Christine A. Owens 1.18.18

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I really appreciate your comments and faves. I'm not a hoarder of contacts, but enjoy real-life, honest people. You are much more likely to get my comments and faves in return if you fit the latter description. Just sayin. :oD

.

If you like b/w photography and/or poetry check out my page at:

expressionsbychristine.blogspot.com/</a

Considered a pioneer of modernism and one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century, Constantin Brâncuși is called the patriarch of modern sculpture.

This narrow alleyway in Bologna feels like a quiet footnote to a very long and influential history. Founded in Etruscan times and later flourishing under Roman rule, Bologna has been continuously inhabited for over two millennia. Streets like this one were not designed for spectacle, but for daily life: passageways for merchants, students, artisans, and monks who shaped the city into one of medieval Europe’s great intellectual and commercial centers.

Architecturally, the scene is unmistakably Bolognese. The weathered brick and stone walls speak of medieval construction techniques, while the irregular textures reveal centuries of repairs and adaptations. The tight proportions of the alley reflect a pre-modern urban logic, where density offered protection, shade, and efficiency. Subtle details—iron lamps, drainage channels, and the rhythm of small openings—show how functionality and restraint defined much of Bologna’s historic fabric.

Just beyond alleys like this rise the city’s famous porticoes, a UNESCO World Heritage site and a defining feature of Bologna’s urban identity. Even where the porticoes are absent, their influence is felt in the deep shadows, sheltered walkways, and human-scale design. This architectural continuity gives Bologna its sense of coherence: a city that evolved slowly, layer by layer, without erasing its past.

Culinarily, these streets are never far from the kitchen. Bologna is widely regarded as the gastronomic heart of Italy, and alleys like this once echoed with the everyday logistics of food—deliveries of flour, wheels of cheese, and cured meats. The city and the wider Emilia-Romagna region are the birthplace of tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini, mortadella, Parmigiano Reggiano, and traditional balsamic vinegar. Here, history, architecture, and cuisine converge quietly, proving that in Bologna, even the most modest alley has a story worth tasting.

RX_09887_20240415_Boloña

I was soooooo unbelievably proud of this photo when I took it about five weeks after buying my first DSLR!

St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Dedicated in honour of Saint Martin of Tours, there has been a church on the site since at least the medieval period. This location, at that time, was farmlands and fields beyond the London wall.

St Martin's became a principal parish church west of the old City in the early modern period as Westminster's population grew. When its medieval and Jacobean structure was found to be near failure, the present building was constructed in an influential neoclassical design by James Gibbs in 1722–1726. The church is one of the visual anchors adding to the open-urban space around Trafalgar Square.

This description incorporates text from the English Wikipedia.

One of the most influential photos from space ever was Earthrise, taken from lunar orbit by William Anders on Apollo 8, the first human-piloted spacecraft to orbit the moon. The one we know was taken on Christmas Eve, 1968, with a Hasselblad 500 EL. What if they had an early prototype of the SX-70 with them?

Petapixel published an article about Earthrise yesterday. They didn't mention the Polaroid version. petapixel.com/2023/04/25/the-story-behind-earthrise-one-o...

Dorothea Lange

Born on May 26th, 1895, in Hoboken, New Jersey, Dorothea Lange was a prominent and highly influential photojournalist and documentary photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression. Her main task was to show the consequences of the Great Depression.

Early Life

Born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn, the famous American photographer was the daughter of a second-generation German immigrant. At age seven, she contracted polio, a disease which left a permanent mark on her life – an altered gait and a weakened right leg.

Her father abandoned Dorothea and her mother when she was only twelve, which was a traumatic event in her life which determined her to change her last name into Lange, her mother’s maiden name. Dorothea studied photography under American photographer Clarence Hudson White at Columbia University in New York and she was apprenticed to the renowned Arnold Genthe’s photography studio in NY.

When she was 23, she moved to San Francisco where she opened a commercial portrait studio. In 1920, she married painter Maynard Dixon and the couple had two sons, Daniel Rhoades (born in 1925) and John Eaglesfeather Dixon (born in 1930). In the early 1930s, her photographs depicting homeless and unemployed men and women wandering the streets in search of work caught the eye of the FSA, for which she worked between 1935 and 1939. In 1935, she married the Professor of Economics at Berkeley, Paul Schuster Taylor.

Death and Legacy

Dorothea Lange passed away at the age of 70, on October 11, 1965, in San Francisco, California. The cause of death was esophageal cancer. She was survived by her two sons with her first husband and by her second husband Paul Taylor.

In 2008, Lange was inducted into the California Hall of Fame for her outstanding contribution to the development of documentary photography and her son accepted the honor on his mother’s behalf.

I encourage you to read more of her Bio she was a very accomplished photographer more info at: totallyhistory.com/dorothea-lange/

Dating back to the 17th century, this unique building stands over Stock Beck in the middle of Ambleside as a quirky reminder of Ambleside’s past.

An influential family, The Braithwaites built Bridge House to access their lands on the other side of Stock Beck and also to store apples from their orchards, which surrounded Bridge House. Over the decades, the house has had many practical uses, include being used as a counting house for the mills of Rattle Ghyll, a tea-room, a weaving shop, a cobbler's, a chair maker's and, at one time, a home to a family of eight!

In the 1920s the residents of Ambleside recognised that Bridge House was in need of repair and they began fundraising, showing tremendous foresight in securing not only the safety of this monument, but also the aesthetics of the area. It was a great display of public action and conservation, securing the little house's future.

Today, The Bridge House is an extremely popular attraction, where thousands of visitors come every year to see it and have their picture taken. © Cumbria Tourism

Incredible evening light at the Black Place.

"I paint because colour is a significant language to me." -- Georgia O'Keeffe

The Black Place is one of Georgia O'Keeffe's iconic, and tremendously influential series of works. The paintings depict an area she found while exploring far afield from her usual Abiquiu, New Mexico habitat - The Ghost Ranch.

To an even greater extent than most of her works, she abstracted the essential details of the landscape she saw -- focusing in; getting closer and closer to the key aspects of her subjects; excluding the unessential surroundings. Much of art is about stripping out the unnecessary - the decisions there are key.

After I heard of this progression that she would repeatedly make (and seeing it in multiple series of her works), I immediately realized that I often do the same thing with my landscape process - gradually getting closer to my subjects - making the view more and more intimate. (I even talked about it happening to get to this image [the last of over a dozen captures]: www.flickr.com/photos/davestargazer/45419832221/#comment7... - which was before I had heard this about O'Keeffe's progression).

This work is not that level of minimalism though - this the first post of a series I captured on that day, I decided to include more of the environment here. In the images I am working on, I plan on driving toward the minimal, if I can.

The Black Place's location remains a secret. She said in 1976, "Such a beautiful, untouched lonely-feeling place – part of what I call the Far Away."

Sorci Castle (Anghiari - Arezzo) Toscana

Landscape

Il castello di Sorci è un piccolo fortilizio sito in località San Lorenzo, presso Anghiari, in provincia di Arezzo. Tra il 1234 e il 1650 fu residenza estiva dell'influente casata ghibellina aretina Tarlati di Pietramala (1234-1388), del famoso condottiero Baldaccio Bruni con la moglie Annalena Malatesta (1388-1441) e della nobile famiglia Pichi di Sansepolcro (1443-1650)

Sorci castle is a small fort site in San Lorenzo, at Anghiari, in the province of Arezzo. Between 1234 and 1650 was the summer residence of the influential lineage Ghibelline Arezzo Tarlati Pietramala (1234-1388), the famous leader Baldaccio Bruni with his wife Annalena Malatesta (1388-1441) and of the noble family of Pichi Sansepolcro (1443-1650 )

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Some Wikipedia Building history:

The structure was built in 1907, was designed by Salfield and Kohlberg and is clad in white tile and copper. It is bounded by Columbus Avenue, Kearny Street, and Jackson Street; straddling the North Beach, Chinatown, and Financial District neighborhoods of the city.

Despite the 1907 finish, building work had begun before the San Francisco earthquake the previous year, but extensive damage to the building site, and the rest of the city, slowed down the construction considerably.

The top floor initially housed the headquarters of the notorious Abe Ruef, a local political figure at the time.

In 1949 or 1950, the nightclub hungry i, which would become very influential in the history of stand-up comedy in the US, was opened as an 83-seat venue in the Sentinel Building's basement by Eric Nord, who sold it to Enrico Banducci in 1951. After operating it as a venue for folk singers, Banducci began hiring comedians in 1953 starting with Mort Sahl, encouraging them to express themselves freely. Their success caused queues around the block, until Banducci moved the hungry i to the nearby International Hotel on Jackson Street in 1954.

In 1958, when the Sentinel Building had deteriorated and it was threatened with destruction, it was bought by Dutch-born investor Rob Moor and his wife Nella, who renovated it, renamed it to "Columbus Tower", and sold it one and a half years later to The Kingston Trio. The music group used it as their corporate headquarters during the 1960s. They built a recording studio in the basement which they used themselves and for many other artists.

The Kingston Trio later sold the building to film director Francis Ford Coppola, who renovated it and changed its name back to the Sentinel Building. Currently occupying much of the tower is Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope studio. Other tenants include independent public media producers for NPR and PBS, as well as independent sound designers for Pixar and Skywalker Sound, among others. On the ground floor is the Cafe Zoetrope (previously Cafe Niebaum-Coppola), which has occupied part of the building since 1999. The café is a bistro and wine shop satellite of the Inglenook Estate Winery in the Napa Valley.

www.daliparis.com

wiki - Dali Paris

Espace Dali is museum dedicated to the renowned surrealist artist Salvador Dali, located in Montmartre, Paris, France.

The museum showcases an extensive collection of Dali's works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints, providing visitors with a unique opportunity to explore the surreal and imaginative world of this influential artist.

The museum offers an immersive experience, with multimedia displays, interactive exhibits, and informative descriptions providing insights into Dali's life, influences, and artistic techniques.

It is a popular destination for art enthusiasts and fans of Dali's distinctive style who are visiting Paris.

Rouen (not Paris), France.

Propelling under iridescence of the influential weather.

static.flickr.com/56/137470906_4ff115f927_o.jpg

An Homage to one of my very favourite artists, Surrealist, Max Ernst ( 1891-1976 ). Ernst's artistic achievements started in original Dada, moved into Surrealism, which in both fields he was a key and influential leader. Later he ventured into abstraction, collage, and sculpture with incredible results. Whatever this consummate artist turned his vision on resulted in unforgettable and highly accomplished imagery.

I wanted this homage to not only collage his work but to also have the look and feel of an "Ernst". Max Ernst himself was a highly accomplished collage artist and he also often worked in multiple planes, long before digital layering. Even my looping lines reference paintings of Ernst's such as, "Young Man Intrigued by the Flight of a Non-Euclidian Fly" ( 1942/47 ) and "The Bewildered Planet" ( 1942 ).

Ernst's work can be hauntingly beautiful, quietly disturbing, wonderfully innocent ( "33 Little Girls Chasing Butterflies", 1958 ) or deeply cerebral. His abstraction has never been recognized for it's high degree of accomplishment, placing him, in my opinion, as equal to any of the great European Abstractionists, the American Abstract Expressionists and the Post "Ab-Ex" painters of the 60's and 70's.

In the "Award Tree" group's challenge "Famous Painters".

Provenance, going left to right:

- "The Anti-Pope", 1941 - Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.

- "The Temptation of St. Anthony" 1945 - Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg.

- "L'Oeil du Silence" 1943/44 - Washington University Art Gallery, Saint Louis, MO.

- "Birth of a Galaxy" 1969 - Galerie Beyeler, Basle.

- "Un Capricho de Venus" - Date & Provenance unknown.

- Photograph of Max Ernst, Frederick Sommer, 1946

Ernst strongly believed that making art was an entirely new venture with each new piece. He felt that an artist that knows what they want exactly and stays strictly to that idea, is not an artist. An artist must be prepared to accept and incorporate what comes out of the process of making each piece, the surprises and the accidents. In that Max Ernst was true to the Surrealist spirit of the time that sought to give complete allowance for the expression of the sub-conscious. That made him a both an accomplished painter but also a great improvisor. His aesthetic can be summed up in his statement:

"Blind Swimmer, I have made myself see. I have seen. And I was surprised and enamoured of what I saw" - Max Ernst.

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© The finished, whole collage - Richard S Warner ( Visionheart ) - 2017. All Rights Reserved. This image is not for use in any form without explicit, express, written permission.

This image is made up of individual paintings by Max Ernst, the provenance of which is listed above. The current artist makes NO claims to any of that work whatsoever. This "collage" is in honour of Max Ernst. No monies will come from this project.

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* - See my Galleries featuring some of the best of Flickr's purely Abstract Art at:

www.flickr.com/photos/visionheart/galleries