The Nevada ghost town of Rhyolite was once very grand, but was very short-lived. The mine got into financial difficulties in 1910, five years after opening, and closed the following year. With no work in the area the population of Rhyolite declined rapidly, to below 1,000 immediately after the mine’s closure and close to zero by 1920.
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Have you ever thought what fun it would be to be able to fly! Not boxed up in an aeroplane, but free, like a bird? Many would opt for that as their ‘super power’ if given the choice, I reckon. But maybe we all have wings, of a sort?
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Sculpture a subject I’m drawn to a lot. I like both the sculptures themselves and the challenge of photographing them in a way that doesn’t merely record the work of the artist but also attempts to put my own stamp on it in some way.
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Sometimes on a trip it’s important to take the pace down a notch. In the end it doesn’t matter if you squeeze in every sight or miss a few. By rushing around you can fail to really appreciate where you are and to notice the smaller details that distinguish one place from the next.
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The Chicago suburb / dormitory town of Naperville is unlikely to be on most tourists’ radar, unless like me you have a friend who lives there. And yet there are sights to be seen. Actually, that’s probably true of most places, isn’t it, if only we look?
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One thing I always enjoy while travelling is to see artists at work or locals demonstrating local crafts. It helps me to understand and appreciate the artistic traditions of a country. It can also open my eyes to the amount of effort that has gone into creating some of the beautiful things I see around me.
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Tromsø is in many ways a surprising city, and full of extremes. Located well inside the Arctic Circle it experiences both Midnight Sun (in summer) and Polar Night (in winter). It can boast the world's northernmost university, its northernmost botanical garden, northernmost cathedral – and northernmost brewery!
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Opinion is divided on street art / graffiti. Some consider it vandalism, others (including me) enjoy the way it brightens a city. Great street art can be beautiful; it can make you think; it can transform a district. So of course I was on the lookout for street art in Tirana, as I am everywhere I go.
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You can’t really miss the unique style of Colombia’s most famous artist. Whether on canvas or in sculpture, his figures are exaggeratedly rotund. The innate humour of these people, and animals, is often offset by sharp political commentary or by pensive contemplation of his own life and family. Indeed the theme of family is central to much of his work.
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Sofia may have moved its many communist era monuments to a dedicated museum, but that doesn’t mean that the city is short of interesting public art pieces. And there is quite a variety, from the purely artistic to the historically significant.
