On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Is it just me, or does that last photo seem like it belongs in a set with Wag’s photo of the woman who was practicing her gymnastics in Paris? ~WaterGirl
Wag
Architecture has always fascinated me, an I would have trained to be an architect if the economy of the early 80’s hadn’t been so dismal. On of my favorite subjects for photography has been details of buildings. I would like to share some of my favorites over the past few years.
Looking up at the roof of the foyer of the Library.
A view of the ceiling of the Orthodox Cathedral in Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn is the spectacular capital city in Estonia. The entire downtown is a UNECSO World Heritage Site, one of the best preserved Medieval cities in all of Europe. Well worth a couple of days to explore.
Yeah, I know. Th edge of the photo says March 82. I shot this using a photo app that was pretty interesting called Hipstamatic. There were a ton of fun retro filters that you could use to great effect. This was shot at 5 AM prior to an international flight, so the concourse was deserted.
On the same trip as our Estonia trip we spent a couple of weeks in Finland. It is an amazing country, with a happy vitality that is infectious. If I could get dual citizenship to any country in Europe, it would be Finland. This is a shot looking down a staircase in the contemporary art museum. in downtown Helsinki.
An exterior shot of the Guggenheim in Bilbao.
Sacred Familia, Gaudi’s architectural masterpiece in Barcelona, is a delight. The stained glass windows provide washes of color that pain the interior columns with magic.
In the upper reaches of the Seattle Public Library are a series of reflective hallways that produce magic.
blacque_jacques
Noice
prostratedragon
Wow!
rikyrah
Love these. Very different??
David Evans
The cathedral ceiling is wonderful. I can’t decide if it’s more like a Star Wars set or a de Chirico painting.
p.a.
Great stuff, thanks!
MazeDancer
Beautifully done!
Wag
and you would be correct!
J R in WV
Wonderful stuff, thanks!
Have been to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the building is the largest piece of art in town!
Barbara
I only had a day in Helsinki but found the museum of contemporary art, which, fortuitously, was the site of a travelling exhibit, a comprehensive retrospective on the work of Robert Mapplethorpe.
And I only had a day in Tallinn, where the remarkable city hall – nearly 800 years old — was the site of an incredibly well-curated exhibit of Northern European renaissance art. We ended our day in Tallinn with a balloon ride.
Thanks for the terriffic photos.
RSA
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Wag
@J R in WV: Agreed!
Wag
@Barbara: I would have loved to have seen that Mapplethorpe exhibit. It was a great museum
arrieve
These are wonderful. Architectural details are one of my favorite things to photograph as well. Maybe I’ll see if I can put together some submissions.
JPL
Amazing! Now I have to add Estonia and Seattle to my bucket list. It’d be easier to travel to Seattle these days.
JCJ
Very nice. The Calatrava Wing of the Milwaukee Art Museum has some fantastic viewpoints as well if you are ever in the area.
Laura Too
So much beauty, thank you. I will look at things a bit differently now. Mr. Steeplejack gave me a drive around tour of Dulles when I dropped off a cat once-in the before times. It was my first time there and it is stunning inside and out and being able to see it and not have to navigate it while driving myself was perfect! He went all the way around it and gave a bit of its history before dropping me off. Inside was quiet so I got to poke around a bit. I forget how provincial Minneapolis International is compared to places that get a lot of foreign tourists. It was so exciting, I dream of visiting other lands again.
Barbara
@Wag: The Mapplethorpe exhibit had started in Paris and I don’t know where else it was supposed to go. Some of the galleries had warnings about the nature of the content. Not that I loved all of it, but it was great to see the full scope of his work, from portraits on magazine covers to close-ups of flower petals, and to have some insight into the aesthetics that motivated his work. The curation also set the work squarely in the cultural context of NYC in the late 70s to early 80s, which included not just the emergence of HIV and gay liberation, but also punk rock (Patti Smith was his great friend). IIRC, Mapplethorpe was from Baltimore and raised a Catholic, which also influenced some of the themes he explored (e.g., crosses). It was so rewarding, all the more for being so unexpected.
The other treasure we stumbled on was the Finnish museum of design, dedicated to exploring the development of the mid-century Finnish aesthetic — e.g., Marimekko. I am so timid, but my husband insists on learning the public transit system of any place we go, even for a day, and it was while we were on a bus back to the harbor that I saw that museum so we hurried and got off. On the other hand, we also saw examples of the graceless faux grandeur of fascist design that arose when Finland was heavily influenced by the USSR (the train station).
arrieve
@Barbara: The train station was actually designed by Eliel Saarinen, father of Eero. You can visit the house where Eero grew up, just outside Helsinki, which is very interesting. The adults had kind of commune thing going on, but the design and the furniture are fascinating.
Wag
@arrieve: One of my favorite places that we went to in Finland was the house of the composer Sibelius. A beautiful home set back in the woods.
BigJimSlade
???Great shots!
Steve from Mendocino
Woohoo!. Love architectural details, and your sense of composition is solid.
Wag
Thanks all for your kind comments
Dan B
@Wag: Your photis are great. I was on track fir a career as an architect until the geh thing got me booted ;<( It’s great to see the contrast between the pre-modern symmetrical and the modern assymetrical / dynamic design. And the Seattle public library is amazing. The exterior is dowdy and the interior sublime. It’s radiant on our majority overcast days and the sound quality is wonderful. It’s similar to the great cathedrals but not as echoey – must be experienced.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Interesting stuff.