Tag: Liverpool

Messages in the Street

Walk along any street, anywhere, and it won’t be long before you come across a message. Maybe light-hearted, like this one spotted in Liverpool …

… maybe political. You can’t go far in Catalonia, Spain without coming across messages and slogans demanding independence. These shots were all taken in Berga, where the mood of virtually the entire population there was not in doubt.

The next shots were all taken when thousands of us took to the streets, again and again, in 2018 and 2019 voicing our misgivings about the prospect of Brexit. It gives us no satisfaction whatever to see that our fears were entirely justified.

In India, I saw messages that were more like public service announcements ..

And in Edinburgh, in the National Museum of Scotland, this …

Inuksuk, by Peter Irniq, 1998, uses a traditional technique used by the Inuit to convey messages about good fishing grounds etc.

Let’s end though, as we began, with a message, this time in Thessaloniki, simply intended to bring good cheer …

For Donna’s Lens-Artists Challenge #234: Messages

Liverpool in Technicolor

A kaleidoscope of colour. That’s what Jude wants this month for her Life in Colour challenge. So we’ll go for a trip to Liverpool and see what we can find.

We’ll catch a bus first. It’s raining of course. Here’s the view from the window.

We pass the Cathedral of Christ the King: here are a couple of views of the interior, and one glancing out of one of the windows.

And, ooh look! Some street art.

We’re really heading for Albert Dock, however…

… where we go into Tate Liverpool, and find …

Jim Lambie: Bobop
Michelangelo Pistoletto: Virgin of the Rags

It’ll be dark soon – time to bid the Albert Dock ‘goodbye’.

And now night has fallen, and we’re in Chinatown. We’ll find somewhere to enjoy a Chinese meal together, as soon as we’ve walked under this arch.

A Window on Liverpool

Today, simply a collage of views-of-a-window-or-through-the-window taken in Liverpool. No stories, no explanations. Just a short saunter through a city full of surprises and views worth noticing.

Annoyingly, this type of gallery won’t allow for captions. Still, if you don’t know the city, perhaps it’ll whet your appetite to go and explore for yourself.

Monday Window

Organic Geometry.

I am very late in joining Jude’s Photo Challenge #51, but here I am. She invites us to make a collage of images, some of which have strong geometric shapes, others of which are organic in form. I had fun looking back though my collection. And what I soon realised was how hard it is to determine what makes a good photo when those images are so bound up with the memories they represent. I suppose that’s what makes me a snapshot-ist rather than a photographer.

I also found myself choosing photos which were primarily geometric – of buildings and so on, but which were enlivened in some way by more organic forms. So Jude, I may not have quite stuck to your brief (again!) but you’ve made me think (again!)

  • I like this recent photo of Fountains Abbey, that the severe geometry of the ruined building, its dull grey stone, is enlivened by the informal way the autumn branches frame the scene.
  • This photo, taken in Granada, is a favourite too. The extravagant decoration of the window frames softens the geometry of the windows: but as a reflected image, the whole thing dissolves completely into something much more organic.
  • This is geometric alright: taken from a viewing platform near the Thames in London. I like that even the frame is emphasised by the vertical lines of the shelter in which this viewing window was situated.
  • This doesn’t qualify as a fine photo. More of a Christmas puzzle. This grocer’s shop in Barcelona displays not only its wares, but the buildings and street furniture in the street it faces into.
  • Liverpool. I’m looking out from the Catholic Cathedral up the road to its Anglican equivalent. I like all those bright verticals guiding your eye up that unremarkable road.
  • I had to have a drystone wall. This Yorkshire feature, solid and strong, contrasts with the distant landscape dissolving into the mist.

The featured photo shows Brimham Rocks in Yorkshire. Nobody could accuse them of being geometric.

Liverpool in Black and White

It’s time for our day out again. Let’s go to Liverpool. Jude’s asked us to look for patterns, and to show them in black and white. Its public buildings, galleries and maritime landscape make Liverpool a good subject, so as it’s lockdown again tomorrow, let’s be off soon.

  • Central Library.
    Central Library.
  • Central Library.
    Central Library.
  • View across the Mersey.
    View across the Mersey.
  • A rainy view from the bus.
    A rainy view from the bus.
  • The Hornby Library.
    The Hornby Library.
  • Liverpool Museum.
    Liverpool Museum.
  • A view from the Museum.
    A view from the Museum.
  • Gunter Ueker: White Field. Tate Liverpool.
    Gunter Ueker: White Field. Tate Liverpool.
  • Windows in the Catholic Cathedral
    Windows in the Catholic Cathedral

2020 Photo Challenge #44

A Dock, an Art Gallery: Liverpool

Liverpool’s tourist Mecca:  the Albert Dock.

Tate Liverpool: park your umbrella inside….

Beyond the gallery window: industrial life.

Snow? Shifting perspectives? Infinite space?

Yayoi Kusama: The Passing Winter 2005.
Yayoi Kusama: The Passing Winter 2005.
Yayoi Kusama: The Passing Winter 2005.

Concentric lines, unsettled steps – careful! Zobop!

Jim Lambie: Zobop 1999

Arte Povera: a classical figure commentates.

Michelangelo Pistoletto: Venus of the Rags, 1967, 1974.
Michelangelo Pistoletto: Venus of the Rags, 1967, 1974.

Water within, water without: a view, a statue.

Germaine Richier: Water, 1953-4.

Beuys/me: two self-portaits in one.

Josef Beuys: Felt suit, 1970.

Time for a smartphone moment: Sue?

And a bike moment:  Sue again?

And a pause for reflection.

Before the rains came…. yet again.

An entry for Six Word Saturday – on Sunday…

The pirates return

It’s time to leave Phil Sayer in peace. My daughter gave him a glorious send-off last Monday, with a funeral attended by nearly 400 people, celebrating his life with tears certainly, but also, nostalgia, humour and even laugh-out-loud moments. When were you last at a funeral which began with Monty Python’s ‘Galaxy Song’? Just before we try to resume normal service, here’s a post I wrote two years ago, celebrating Phil’s time on the pirate ship Radio Caroline.

Rest in peace, Phil.

From Pyrenees to Pennines

Alex and Ben rush down the gangplank of the pirate ship. Alex and Ben rush down the gangplank of the pirate ship.

This post probably won’t make much sense if you’re not from the UK.  It won’t make sense even if you’re British if you’re not at least in your mid- 50’s.  You won’t know of a world where your radio listening choices were limited to the Home Service (much like Radio 4), the Light Programme (much like  Radio 2) and the Third Programme ( much like…. yes, Radio 3).  What’s missing from this list?  Yes, indeed, Radio One.

If you were a teenager before the mid 1960s, you weren’t going to get much joy listening out for a diet of pop music by choosing the BBC.  The only option was to tune in to the commercial Radio Luxembourg.  The amount of music it offered grew rapidly throughout the ’60s, but anyone from my generation will remember the commercials too…

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