Tim O’Grady and Silvano DiMonte’s 35

Tim O’Grady and Silvano DiMonte’s 35.

Washington DC (scanned b&w negatives)

Photos taken in February 2012

 

Chicago In Images: Part 1

Clark Street, Andersonville

Andersonville

Robie House, Hyde Park

Old Town Triangle, Chicago

Crossing Columbus Drive, The Loop

Dearborn and Randloph, Loop

Chicago from the Sky - Willis Tower

Greektown

I present to you a smattering of photographs taken all over the City of Chicago (north side, west side, south side) during the past 6 weeks I’ve been living here. The city is so diverse – not only ethnically, but architecturally and aesthetically too! I live in Lakeview which consists of residential, tree-lined streets that are interspersed with detached 3 story brick houses and smallish apartment complexes. Lakeview covers a pretty big area and is usually broken down into several sub-sections (West Lakeview where I live, Central Lakeview, Boystown, Wrigleyville) which all have their own architectural/visual qualities and are serviced by different commercial thoroughfares.

“The Loop” is an incredible part of the city that offers me a unique sensory experience every time I walk through it. The noise from the “l” as trains rattle the tracks above seems to compliment the tall, gritty skyscrapers and flashy theaters. It’s a place of innovation, modernism and functional chaos. One of my favorite neighborhoods, Andersonville, is about a 40 minute train ride from the Loop and has a totally different vibe. Clark Street serves as a commercial corridor with independent restaurants, boutique stores and the city’s most-esteemed Swedish Bakery. The buildings are only a few stories high and composed of brick with simple adornments. The lush residential neighborhood just east of Clark consists of quiet, green streets and detached houses with well-maintained gardens and generations of family histories hidden inside.

L’île de Ré, France

The sun finally decided to peak its head out in southwestern France on April 1st. I took full advantage of the warm weather by venturing to the gorgeous Île de Ré off the western coast of France. The island is accessible via a contemporary bridge that connects the eastern shore of the island with La Rochelle, France. It’s a summer hotspot that compares to the Hamptons in New York and is chock full of Parisians, Bordelais and other chic français during l’été. I traveled with my friend Trang to the biggest town on the island, Saint Martin de Ré. Due to our reliance on public transportation we weren’t able to travel to the more secluded beaches. Nonetheless we had a great time exploring this hidden gem during the off-season before it becomes plagued with summer tourists.

Une carte de l'île de Ré

We were dropped off in the city center of Saint-Martin-de-Ré at around noon after a 1/2 bus ride from La Rochelle on the mainland. The city is surrounded by a harbor with boats and yachts anchored ashore. The entire harbor is flanked by restaurants where patrons sit outside beneath blue and white striped awnings. To save some money my friend and I settled on sandwiches that we bought from a bakery and had lunch on top of an old fortification wall overlooking the sea. [The town had fortification walls erected in 1681 by Louis XIV due to its vulnerable position in sea.] Afterwards, we wandered around the harbor and took a peak into a few stores that sold beachy, mariner-esque memorabilia.

saint martin de ré harbor

a railing separating the sidewalk and the harbor.

We then walked the perimeter of the town, along the old fortification walls. We spotted a church on the hilltop and aimed for that. Apparently, as we approached the church we gained elevation and lost sight of it. Somehow we managed to get lost (which is basically impossible in Saint-Martin since it is so tiny) and ended up traversing the entire town without locating it. Our misfortune turned into good luck when I spotted a sign that read “Plage” (beach) pointing to the east. After a good 15 minute walk we ended up at a small beach with about 6 other people lounging about. A few brave souls were swimming on the first hot day of the year, but we decided to stay on terra firma.

Saint Martin de Ré beach

A house number sign spotted during our walk across the town

After an hour or so on the beach we tried to see some other landmarks before our bus came to pick us up. We spotted the modest white lighthouse painted red on the tip, a touristy coin-operated binocular that looked out to nothing but the sea and the ancient citadel. We eventually found the church which had a weathered façade and a simple, vernacular interior. The nave was very low and the ceiling was made out of wood. The building dates from XIV century but has been remodeled greatly since then due to damages suffered from the Hundred Years War.

The sun begins to set right before we head back to La Rochelle to catch our train back to Bordeaux

Fragments from the Alps

Annency, France is about 90 minutes from Geneva, Switzerland and accessible via bus. This town is absolutely amazing! It's located on the shores of Lac Annency and surrounded by the jagged peaks of the Alps (which were still capped with snow). There is a canal that separates the city in half and several pedestrian bridges straight from a fairy tale.

Snapshots from Annency, France

When I visited Annency, there was a huge flea market that dominated the tiny town. Vendors took up half of the already narrow quay bordering the canal - enticing visitors to browse at the bric-a-brac.

Geneva, Switzerland

Geneva is a strange city with an identity crisis. Most citizens speak French, yet there is a huge presence of American/English/International businesses who have their headquarters in the city. Each district had it's own architecture/vibe including "Les Eaux-Vives" where I took this photo.

My most fond memory of the city was walking around Lac Leman at dusk when the setting sun basked the city in a golden glow.

Pays Basque, País Vasco, Euskadi

The train from Bordeaux to Hendaye traverses straight through le Parc naturel régional des Landes de Gascogne. You see rows upon rows of pine trees and open fields for several miles. The calm, flat landscape accompanied by the shining sun piercing through the windows put me in a lull for a good half hour. Then suddenly, as the train took on a slight curve and I opened my eyes I saw a glimpse of the sea.

Playa de la Concha, San Sebastian

A few minutes after we stopped at Biarritz, the Bay of Biscay (Golfe de Gascogne in French) was revealed with its bright blue waters and endless skies. I got to spend a few days on the shores of this beautiful body of water during my short stay in San Sebastian and Bilbao, Spain.

On the train from Hendaye, France and San Sebastian, Spain I happened to meet an American girl who was working in La Rochelle as a teaching assistant. We ended up spending all of Friday together walking San Sebastian’s sandy beaches and even climbing to the top of a small hill located minutes from the city’s parte vieja. Friday was absolutely gorgeous; plenty of sun, warm and fuzzy with a nice breeze to circulate the air.

San Seb's Parte Vieja

The water was pretty cold (probably comparable to New York water in late May) but I could’ve been convinced into taking a quick dip if I had brought my bathing suit (on second thought – probably not).

There are two main beaches in San Sebastian: Playa de la Concha, the larger of the two which is closer to the downtown area and La Zurriola Beach which is a popular surf spot. Mount Urgull – a small high which only reaches 123 meters at its highest point – separates the two beaches and offers beautiful panoramic view of the city.  On top there is a Castillo with a statue of Christ overlooking the city. There is also a small bar located on the hill with great views overlooking the Bay of Biscay.

San Sebastian is also known for its tapas- known as pintxos in Basque country. I feasted on pintxos and a pint of beer for many meals during my time in the city. The Parte Vieja has tons of pintxos bars all over the place and I don’t remember seeing a bar that only served alcohol.

View of San Sebastian from Monte Urgull

Americans would probably classify pintxos as an appetizer or finger food, but in San Sebastian you can make a full meal out of them. Most people will try one or two pintxos with a beer and then hop to another bar and try their selection. The pintxos I tried ranged from roasted red peppers stuffed with tuna, cheese balls, potato and egg quiches and ham bruschetta. Yum!

On Saturday I took the bus to Bilbao, Spain which is about an hour bus ride away. Bilbao has one of the most architecturally interesting buildings in the world; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Bilbao is also the largest city in Basque Country and has a relatively well preserved old city center which was fun to explore.

The best way to view the Guggenheim is to walk around it completely so you can observe each angle. To get a nice straight on view of the building you have to cross the river. After a view snapshots you come back to come back to the other side and observe the various sculptures that complement the museums façade including a giant spider and a series of silver balls fused into each other. As you circle the museum towards the main entrance you are greeted by a colorful floral dog sculpture that is over a story high. After you have observed every curve, reflection and angle of the façade you can now enter the actual museum. The Guggenheim features 20^th-21^st century art, photography, sculpture and videos. The most famous work is The Matter of Time by Richard Serra which features several spiral mazes which visitors are able to walk in and out of. The mazes were designed to give the spectator a dizzying/disorienting experience because of its spiral trajectory and varying widths. Like the Tate Modern, each room had a theme instead of a region/time period like more traditional museums.

Richard Serra's "The Matter of Time"

Puppy by Jeff Koons

In downtown Bilbao, I had a blast getting lost in the nonsensical urban design. Tiny streets with signs in both Spanish and Basque ended in plazas with ancient cathedrals while others ended abruptly with a wall or connected to the quay where communists had set up booths for a protest…about something.

 

Parte Vieja Bilbao

 

On Sunday I was back in San Sebastian until my train at 4pm. I walked outside witnessed a group fitness routine taking place just outside of my hostel. I also saw people stretching with race bibs which made me believe there must be a benefit race going on. I gracefully walked past the runners towards the San Sebastian aquarium. The aquarium tries to blend nautical history and shipmaking along with the fish displays, but alas the fish take the spotlight. The most spectacular part of the aquarium is the glass tunnel where visitors can observe sharks, fish, eels and stingrays up close and personal. Even though I’m not the biggest enthusiast of marine biology, I was captivated by the size of the tunnel and the variety of fish that were on display.

Aquarium Tunnel: Hello Fishies!

Basque Sign in Bilbao

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, I had a great first experience in Spain and would love to go back in the future (although I doubt it will be this time around) and visit Madrid, Barcelona, Salamanca, Seville and Cordoba. Before then I have to brush up on my Spanish again and try not to mix up my “oui”s with my “si”s

Adios España!

Smidgens of London

During my winter break I visited Danielle in London. Although February isn’t the best time to visit England (cold, rain, fog, repeat) it was still a blast. I visited the major museums (Tate Modern, National Gallery, British Museum) but also did a lot of walking in some not-so-touristy areas like Holborn and Bloomsbury. Click pictures too see them bigger!

Parliament/Big Ben/Westminster: I visited these iconic landmarks during my first day in London. The weather was grey and foggy, and it was nearing dusk, but it actually created a cool, eerie ambience which seemed to perfectly reflect the city. Seeing Big Ben (well, Big Ben is just the bell, but let’s not get too technical) up close was a bit shocking because it looks so different than it appears in postcards. This is because you can see the architectural detail of the clock tower up close; its gold accenting and rigid pokiness is what really interested me. The Parliament complex has a very rigid aesthetic, which emphasizes verticality and symmetry (see Perpendicular Gothic Architecture).

Trafalgar Square & National Gallery: An iconic duo. The famous National Gallery is the focal point of Trafalgar Square, which is often cited as the most photographed spot in London. It was cool to see the square at night and during the day because it has such a different vibe depending on when you go. I absolutely loved the National Gallery and even saw a few works that I studied in my two art history classes. My personal favorites included The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger and Bathers at Asnières by Georges Seurat.

Trafalgar at Night

National Gallery

St. Martin in the Fields & Nat Gallery

British Museum: I especially loved the Antiquities section as well as the Clocks section. Unfortunately I visited on a rainy, saturday (which also happened to be the last week of Europe’s 2 week long winter vacation) so it was crowded. Obviously I visited some rooms (like Roman Inscriptions) where hardly any visitors dare to visit.

Interior of Museum

 

Standard of Or (2600 BC)

Buckingham Palace / Changing of the Guards: Buckingham Palace is by no means the prettiest palace in Europe, but it gets it point across. Changing of the Guards was quite an extravagant event that was full of surprises – like the diabetic lady who passed out 5 feet from me and pickpocketers causing a scene. The band also played the Star War’s Theme.

Westminster and Statue

London Eye: Jolly old London seen high from the sky. Alas, the weather didn’t cooperate for pretty pictures.

Parliament from the sky

Tate Modern: One of my favorites in London! The permanent collection was arranged in a unique manner, with rooms such as “States of Flux” which featured Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism and “Material Gestures” which showcases abstraction and expressive figuration that emerged in post-war Europe and America. The Millennium Bridge which connects Tate to St. Paul’s Cathedral complemented the Tate’s industrial façade.

View from Millennium Bridge looking at St Paul's

And the rest:

Royal Albert Hall

Telephone Booth in Notting Hill

Somewhere in Bloomsbury

Lincoln's Inn Fields

London!

Périgueux – la ville des radis glacés

Last Saturday I visited Périgueux, the “major” city of the Dordogne region of Southwestern France, with two of my friends. My travel guide dedicates about 6 pages to the city, so I figured it would be a good place to have a day trip. The city is best known for the grand Cathédrale Saint-Front which is along the Way of St. James – a famous pilgrimage route that ends in Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

We started our tour of the city at the “ancient roman” district – located west of downtown. Although the area was kind of desolated and run-down, there were a few pretty cool remnants from the gallo-roman period. Le Temple de Vésone is a 25 meter high tower constructed in the 2^nd century BC which has an entire chunk of stone missing from the structure.

Château Barrière

Le Château Barrière is a medieval palace built in stone with a vast interior complete with remnants of capitals and columns that once decorated the building in its hey-day. The last notable site is Le Jardin des Arènes – a park that incorporates sections of the city’s ancient arena alongside a modern fountain, dirt paths and plenty of benches.

Next we headed over to “centre ville” which is also known as the Medieval/ “Renaissance” district. The majority of the city is composed of narrow, pedestrian streets (that sometimes turn into stairs) and a series of public squares.

Place St. Silain

The façades of the buildings are made with a pinkish-white stone that is accented by brightly colored shutters. Clearly the city has never been as wealthy as Bordeaux because the architecture is much more modest (although there are a series of flashy houses along the quay where the city’s most prominent families resided).

We ate lunch at Place St-Silain where there are several restaurants with tables outside to choose from. We couldn’t make up our minds about where to eat, so we sat at a vegetarian restaurant that offered a really cheap 3-course meal of the day. We looked at the menu and discovered that the plat principal was “radis glacés dans un tortilla” – which translates to glazed radishes in a tortilla. After some hesitation we decided that the food seemed neither satisfying nor substantial so we decided to leave and move about 20 feet over to a different restaurant. There we feasted on omelets and warm flourless cake with sorbet and crushed pistachios.

After a brief rain shower we walked to the big Cathedral situated along the Isle River which is said to resemble of Sacré Cœur in Paris. The cathedral is composed of a series of conical domes topped with cupolas and a prominent steeple. The façade is of a cream-colored stone – apparently inspired by roman and byzantine church architecture.

cathédrale st.-front

The interior was vast, but not as impressive as the outside. There are also cloisters, but they are closed to the public (don’t worry – I took stealthy photos through the gate).

Although the city was really cute, it was completely DEAD when we visited. I suppose it was February and the French school vacation just started, but it was nice to return to lively Bordeaux and see the streets filled with people.

-Tim

rue tranquille, vie tranquille

Un week-end à la ville-lumière

I spent this past weekend in the City of Lights, Paris! I got in late friday night and had dinner with my friend Lisa in the Latin Quarter. We had a 3 course meal for only 10 euros but the power went out twice in the restaurant in a one hour span! I guess you always pay the price one way or another. On Saturday we had a promenade in the Bois de Boulogne – a 2,090 acre park bordering Paris to the west. We met a bulldog anglais and witnessed ducks fighting in the pond. We made our way to Musée Marmottan – the museum of Claude Monet. Unfortunately photography wasn’t permitted at all, but the museum is located in the beautiful former hunting lodge of the Duke of Valmy. The collection is impressive and includes famous works such as Impression, soleil levant, Nymphéas reflets de saule and Le Train dans la neige. Lisa really liked the staircase.

Later on, we ate Monoprix sandwiches on the steps of L’église de la Madeleine. A scottish bagpipe player marched by playing some tunes with the Concorde obelisk in the background. We later found out that Scotland was playing France in Rugby which made the whole scene a little less weird.

We then took the subway to the Rive Gauche were we sat down to get a coffee at the famous Closerie des Lilas. The only problem was that no one came outside to serve us, even after I went inside and told someone we were there. Fortunately, the Montparnasse has plenty of legenedary cafés where literary icons would spend hours working on their manuscripts. We sipped on 3 euro noisettes at Le Select to warm up from the chilly, cloudy afternoon. Saturday night ended with a pasta and salad dinner and a night out in the Chatelet area.

On Sunday we descended down into the Catacombs of Paris – located just outside the Denfert- Rochereau metro stop. The ossuary had previously been stone quarries, but in 1786 it was converted to a mass tomb. It’s hard to imagine that the bones and skulls are real because they are stacked so orderly and the tunnels are so extensive. Funny thing is that what they let you explore is only a fraction of the entire ossuary!

We ascended the catacombs (80+ steps that wind up a stone staircase) and headed over to the Quartier Latin for a dessert and coffee break. Unfortunately Sunday in France means that NOTHING is open so we finally settled for lunch at a café on Blvd Saint-Germain. It was très sympa and the flourless chocolate cake was to die for. Lucky for us the sun came out during our walk to the Pantheon. It was my second time to the Pantheon in the past year, but it never fails to disappoint. The beautiful neo-classical façade  outside is just the icing on the cake of this famous Parisian monument created in 1790. Although it was originally intended to be a church was converted into a mausoleum to house the bodies of great French people. The interior is MASSIVE. A complex compilation of arches, domes and monumental columns creates a geometric interplay which is complemented by the soft, almost pastel-like, polychromy designs. In the crypts below are the bodies of Rousseau, Madam Curie, Voltaire, Dumas, Hugo, Louis Braille, Marat and Emile Zola.

Since il faisait beau, we continued to walk towards the Seine eventually ending up at the quays of Île de la Cité and Île St. Louis. Notre Dame square was full of tourists and locals alike enjoying the sun’s rays after a few days of cloudy weather. A street performer of the Pont St Louis did a trick involving duck tape and a bicycle that I did not understand.