Cardinal Guzman is the host this week on a Norwegian photography website’s challenge (www.akam.no) and has chosen the theme of Negative Space. Weather not permitting a large abundance of negative space in our corner of the globe at the moment, a backward glance through the archives brought forth two visions – both illustrate the two diametrically opposed sides of one city.
A fascination with graffiti and architecture combines for the Weekly Photo Challenge: Renewal – Urban. Talk about the changing face of the city in some circles and you’ll either be met with suspicious glares, get embroiled in a heated discussion about the lack of civic leaders’ adequate foresight or will be pleasantly surprised by the rehabilitation of a down and out neighbourhood. A vision, conception, the wrangling of red-tape and public consultation,the first scarily destructive steps taken towards revitalization – all these are but part of the protracted birthing pains leading up to the awakening of a unique community. Like a newborn child, the shell of this building only hints at what it could possibly become.
Just couldn’t seem to get it together in time last week but as the cosmos will have it Across the Bored scored a bonus round for two A Word in your Ear’s Word A Week Photograph Challenge – Mother (part two) AND Love. They triggered this anecdote:
Weekly summer auctions weave a spell of their own with trash and treasure piled deep, all manner of oddments from all sorts of lives thrown together without rhyme or reason. One can spot a thing of beauty or value and fall in love – one man’s junk is another man’s jewel. Antiquers, auction addicts, pickers and their ilk might tell you that they know when a piece talks and is going to go home with them. Lovejoy, the BBC comedy-drama series, had Ian McShane playing just one such character.
Across the Bored spied this frame hidden under a couple of amateur acrylics and knew, on the spot, that it was the one. The print could always be replaced and come Thursday night we bid quite vigorously only to be beaten out by an older man of questionable provenance. We had to let it go. The walk home that evening, empty-handed, was longer than usual and sleep even more fitful. A few days later, at the next week’s inspection, it was revealed that the object of desire had never been picked up and was to be had for half of what it had “gone” for. As can be seen, there was not a moment’s hesitation. The print remains to this day, she is a comforting presence – for some things are just meant to be…
Look up, look way up…
Nothing like a few tons of concrete and the brilliance of stained glass to fulfill the Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry. The incredible saddle roof on this church is composed of segments of hyperbolic paraboloids and has a sister with similar architectural traits in Tokyo. Good things really do come in pairs…
A visit to the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco was pleasantly rewarded with the strains of the organist’s rehearsal floating up into the peak of its unique saddle roof and the discovery of this mosaic tucked off to one side of the nave. Inspired by the original Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, it fits A Word in your Ear’s Word A Week Photograph Challenge – Mother quite nicely.
A shift in perspective
This week’s photo challenge: Near and Far brought to mind that visitors to our city have often been primed by picture-perfect postcard views and sweeping panoramas taken from the many lookouts. They are rarely disappointed but the local art and architecture sometimes becomes a shadowy backdrop for those who live here year round. In this photograph, a hazy autumn afternoon had found us playing the role of guide for a friend who had never been to the Oratory – we had taken an alternate route than usual to get there, one that circled around the back of the mountain and it offered up the landmark in a very different light. It asked for nothing but quiet contemplation – a gentle reminder that beauty is always there when we choose to stop and refocus.
ACROSS THE BORED 