Just a Moment

When, a while ago, the lens artists challenged us to share quiet moments, instead of going through my beach and museum and travel photos, I wondered if, and how, I could show my quiet moments en miniature. Pondering several possibilities, I realized that reading almost always gives me some quiet – and that I can experience this quietness everywhere and anytime.

Today I would like to share a couple of pictures which surprisingly turned into a short story.

Graphic

This week, John Steiner of the Lens-Artists came up with a challenge that really got me thinking: John prompts us to pick a word “that fits your topic and select three or four appropriate photos to share.” In view of my toy photography years and the time before that, would I find any common denominator? I used to be very intersted in abstract photography, exploring real space and pictorial composition. It also seems I like showing affiliations or connections, both spatial and social.

One way of doing so was employing neagative space and stark contrasts – which is something I’ve also been exploring with toys lately. So here’s a little retrospective: three toy photos, and three photos showing memorials.

The latter date back to 2012-13, while the picture with the three deck chairs is no older than a week.

Old Mill, New Museum

Küppersmühle, an industrial mill in the port of Duisburg, Germany, has been converted into a museum. It now displays a great collection of modern and contemporary art. But I never really get to enjoy the art in full because the museum now features two beautiful staircases which are themselves works of art – and they are very distracting!

With some of the old silos still standing, you get a strong industrial vibe while the building also frames the art nicely.

But I compulsively return to the stairs…

The architecture just lends itself to this kind of abstract photography I so much like – using built space for compositions within the rectangualr space of the picture. And I think the pictures lend themselves to contributing to Anne’s wonderful lens artists challenge #251: Buildings and Other Structures. Oh, and here’s one other structure, a work of art nicely interacting with the architecture.