According to Sherlock Holmes, 'There must be something comforting about three. People always give up after three.' Hopefully this isnāt true of architects and builders; we would all be very short of homes, schools, offices, etc. etc. if they were to give up after three!
-
-
Some of my best memories of my previous visit to Faro were of exploring the streets of the Old Town especially around the beautiful Cathedral. I was keen therefore to revisit favourite spots and discover new ones.
-
Bachkovo Monastery was for sure one of the most stunning of the many sights I saw in my short time in Bulgaria! Despite all the visitors, the atmosphere was one of tranquillity. The buildings looked so photogenic both in the drizzly weather we arrived in and the sunshine when we departed; and there was so much to see that was both interesting and beautiful.
-
Sevilleās cathedral was built on the footprint of the cityās grand mosque, originally constructed in the 12th century. When the cathedral was finished in the early 16th century it was the largest in the world. Although that may no longer be the case, it is still an awe-inspiring space.
-
Once upon a time, when Seville was the capital of Al-Andalus, the ruling Almohade caliphate built a palace in the city which they named āAl Mubarakā or 'The Blessed'. It was the hub of both the city's government and its artistic and literary life. Little of that palace remains today, apart from some foundations. On these, in the thirteenth century, the conquering Castilians built their own palace to serve as both seat of government and royal residence, a function the Alcazar performs to this day.
-
In the Plaza de la EncarnaciĆ³n of Seville a strange structure reaches skywards. This is the Metropol Parasol, often referred to by locals as the Mushrooms, Las Setas de la EncarnaciĆ³n. The dramatic forms arch overhead, framing views of the surrounding streets and buildings.
-
The capital of the DPRK, Pyongyang, has been developed as a showpiece for the country, demonstrating to both outsiders and the North Korean people the strength and power of the regime, and making a strong statement about the countryās ambitions to be self-reliant in the face of often hostile challenges from elsewhere ā those challenges being of course both political and at times physical.
-
Sometimes (often?) photography is more about serendipity than anything else. A purposeful photo outing is enjoyable of course, and often reaps great rewards; but arguably we derive the most pleasure from finding an unexpected subject for our lens just by chance? I visited a London gallery that I hadnāt been to before. The exhibition was not especially inspiring, but I fell in love with the gallery's spiral staircase. Or perhaps more accurately, I fell in love with the photographic possibilities it presented.
-
I wonder which way you usually point your camera? Iām guessing that most of the time, like me, you point it forwards. Maybe you tilt up for a tall building or tree, or downwards to capture a plant or small animal. But what if we were to point it directly upwards or downwards? What would we see?
-
Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil as it is also known, was an art and architecture movement of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, at its height 1890ā1910. As an artistic philosophy it proposed that art should be a way of life, and that everyday items could be beautiful too. It was inspired by nature ā flowers, animals, natural forms. In the old buildings of Riga it is at times at its most flamboyant and exuberant.
