‘A Line is a Visual Trail of Energy’

So said Mick Maslen, Yorkshire artist and teacher. And perhaps none is more energetic than the Leading Line: the one that draws you insistently into an image to discover what lies at the other end. And which may leave you wondering, because you often never reach it.

My header image is from Cádiz, and is a bit of a text book classic. Pavement, road, seawall, cars, kerb-side buildings – even to a lesser extent the wispy clouds- all lead you on and drop you outside the city’s cathedral.

In other examples, it’s the journey along the lines, rather than the destination that commands our notice. Here’s one from Chalons-en-Champagne: the wall paintings rather than the chap at the end, are the story. Just as the couple in the underpass in Premià de Mar attract less attention than the graffiti they’ve just walked past.

Other leading lines have no destination that we can see. The Chirk Aqueduct, with viaduct behind is going somewhere. We just don’t know where. The same with the Rolling English Road in the Yorkshire Dales, and the track in another part of the Dales whose path has been enveloped by fog.

Chirk Aqueduct: from Shropshire to Wales.

Just one more image today. The astonishing Millau Viaduct in France, some two and a half km. long, sweeps majestically about 35 metres above the River Tarn and the landscape and communities beneath- sometimes (and oh how I’d love to see it then!) even above the clouds.

Millau Viaduct

For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness and her guest host this week Sarah, who writes Travel with Me.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

49 thoughts on “‘A Line is a Visual Trail of Energy’”

    1. It’s a fabulous holiday destination in its own right. There was a (Channel 5?) TV programme about its construction some years ago, which made for fascinating viewing. I wonder if it’s still available?

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      4. hee hee – nope I definitely remembering stumbling across it. No idea which channel though so will go along with your Channel 5 suggestion

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  6. I love that quote about a line as a ‘visual trail of energy’ 😀 And I love your images too, and the way you describe how some lines lead to an obvious point while others lead we know not where! My favourites are probably the Yorkshire Dales road and the Premià de Mar tunnel, although on the latter I would disagree that the graffiti commands our attention more than the distant couple as my eyes were definitely drawn more towards them!

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  7. Great set, Margaret! A line in photography can indeed be energetic. Loved the underpass and that road in the Dales…,would love to be driving it!

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  13. I’m speechless and will ramble, Margaret. These are phenomenal photos. You gave us a guide for leading lines. The gallery is beautiful all around, but I am very partial to the Rolling English Road. Beautiful!

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