There was a significant amount of swearing involved in the creation of this image. I was walking along with Crystal on the pedestrian mall at Silver Spring, marveling at the blue sky and 80º weather. I spot a plane leaving a narrow white chalk-mark across the pristine sky in pleasing juxtaposition with the nearby architecture….
Tag Archive: architecture
Light & Glass
Some buildings do well even when the weather is a mess. It may even be that Harman Hall looks better when skies are gray. Despite the mismanagement of traffic flow during TEDxMidAtlantic, I really enjoyed being in the building.
God’s Eye View
Raise your hand if you’ve ever dreamed of flying (by your own power, not in a vehicle). I used to have flying dreams all the time. The catch was—in my dreams—that I couldn’t fly if anyone was watching. If someone saw me, I would quickly lose altitude; if I was on the ground, I wouldn’t…
Sail On
With yet another end-of-days meme on its way—Hurricane Irene, which I have dubbed Irenegnarok—I thought I’d provide a little calm and stability as a counter-balance to the general elevation of anxiety. This is another image from the archive, a nautically-themed exterior of an apartment building in South Beach, Miami. I love the monochrome serenity of…
Rattled, But Still Standing
There was a rumble, almost below hearing, and then my apartment began to shake, rattle, and roll. The outside wall of my apartment shimmied. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and would be quite content to never ever see anything like it again. A couple of pictures fell off the wall, and a few…
Coming or Going
This facade adorns a corner of Charlottesville’s Market Street pedestrian mall. If I recall correctly, it used to be a bank. It looks as if it was in the process of being converted to mixed retail-living space when the economic bottom dropped out. It’s got a little bit of almost everything I like. Exposed architectural…
At what cost?
Could Jefferson have had this without slavery? No. As it was, he died owing a fortune, essentially bankrupting his heirs. He purchased the magnificence of Monticello, the realization of his brilliance, the landscape of his curiosity and the playground of his delight, at the price of the lifelong labors of—no exaggeration—hundreds of slaves who had…
Intrusions
Sometimes the things I like the best about a photograph are on the periphery. What is that metal laticework protruding in from the right? Where is the rest of that bench? Whose legs are those? I like the stark geometry and the sun-stressed color palette of this image. It needs to be seen really large,…
Admirer
The woman in this picture is Kathleen from Houston. We chatted briefly as we both circled the cathedral, cameras in hand. Kathleen was on a rare solo trip, sans children, and having a wonderful time. Having asked me where I was from (“Across the street!”), she expressed some surprise that I was out photographing a…
Indirect
Sometimes I wonder why I have any friends or family who still love me. I literally left my sister-in-law (who I’m lucky if I see twice a year) sitting alone at a restaurant table, while I dashed out into the cold to take this photograph. I’d watched the two sources of reflected light move across…