* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #885 / Revived #105 on 2025 04 02*

When we were in Lyon, I did not go inside the Musée des Confluences. On the first day, we were on our way to another place (Le Grand Loco, for the Biennale).
On the second day, I raced the evening sun to the spot, and frankly, the weather and light was just too nice to consider stepping inside.
Your image tells me that we need to revisit Lyon someday and give the interior a chance.
I do like the lines in your image and can see what you were going for, but unfortunately I am not 100% convinced.
I still feel like the exterior is the more interesting part of the architecture.

This view feels like something out of The Matrix: through a small window in a uniform and rigid reality of steel, concrete and glass, we get a glimpse of another dimension that is more organic. (Still a lot of buildings, but some plants too - I am imagining this same image, but then with a view towards a lush forest through the gap - how cool would that be...?)

The funny thing is that even that rigid uniformity of the building façade is not all that uniform at all, upon further scrutiny.
Individual inhabitants are customizing their space with terrace furniture etc.

(I always think that architects of this kind of modernist buildings imagine their creation as pristine and flawless, shiny and anonymous.
And then a troupe of neanderthal cave dwellers descends upon it and make their little cozy homes and out goes the formalism.)

No, I haven't seen your photo in Street because I have not (yet) looked at that forum.

We've seen this phenomenon of "traditional dress for hire" in many places in Asia.
It adds to the atmosphere.

And at one occasion, we have seen the hilarious effect of European tourism discovering that trend and catering to Asian tourists.
In Cesky Krumlow, an achingly picturesque medieval town in the Czech Republic, with an imposing castle dominating cobblestoned streets and crooked houses, all with the embrace of a meander of a river, we encountered a few groups of Chinese selfie-makers in European medieval dress. Hard to keep a straight face.

I'll have to make an effort to visit the Loser mountain again sometime soon this year and see what they've done to this lovely area.
They claim that it is better and even more enviromentally friendly now, with less cars driving up. I get the feeling they are trying to say it's modern but not intrusive, preserving and opening up the natural beauty.
Well, perhaps, but we'll see! and I'll post what I see after that visit

Thanks Chris. It was one of those scenes that I knew from before I got my camera out that I wanted it to be in monochrome, and that I wanted some blank space in it. I took some closer ups but the angel was not a pretty sculpture, it almost looked home-made, so I reverted to my first instinct.

I am always honored if anyone takes the time to work on one of my photos and show me a new way to see it. I like what you did with the light. I probably won't crop it though, since the isolation of this place and its lonely monuments were things I wanted to emphasize. This long running thread has taught me there are multiple stories hiding in almost every photo if we dig deep enough. Thanks!

Thanks Mike, there were a bunch of stories and mysteries in this place, which is very different from most of our old cemeteries. You explained one that grabbed my attention, the intrusion of light between the sheltering trees. The angel, as I said in an earlier reply, was not conducive to close examination. She seemed to have been created by someone just learning, or emulating something they'd seen, interesting but not the usual Victorian cemetery angel. Another story, definitely.

You describe my intent very well. I took some closer, then realized I wanted exactly what you've described. I don't always get to think so purposely about object placement in the frame, but these stones were very still and waited quietly for me to consider all possibilities and even think about the black and white conversion while I was there. Very different from chasing birds or boys.

There is a good contrast between the women in their ornate, colourful clothing and bright umbrellas, with the rather drab coloured and surprisingly square shrine.
I also like how Buddha stares out through the gap in the shrine, and then the aha moment when closer inspection reveals his wild staring eyes are really just discolouration on his eye-lids, and that he is really looking downwards in a peaceful and benevolent way.

The crop is an accident. Somehow it happened in the process of copying the image from the site, pasting it into Photoshop, copying it from there and pasting back into the site.

Rich

The story behind this photo is wonderful and quite unthinkable in Europe, but even without that information the photo strikes a chord. It is visually quite simple, with few colours and only three objects, but it conveys sensations of peace, adventure, danger even, longing for travel, solitude, curiosity and ….
You really should offer it for sale, as any one of those triggers is likely to cause a wallet to be pulled.

The lines and highlighted objects appearing from the shadows create an image, which provides information but also invites the viewer to imagine what else is still unseen. That is something I always enjoy.

What a great landscape and two beautiful photos. In both we are looking through an opening and being teased by the sights beyond. Again the images invite us to imagine what is not visible.

Thanks Pete and to all the others that commented on these images.
I didn't get much of a chance to participate much this week, which is a shame, considereing that there were a load of good images posted :-)

The scene is perfectly suited to its purpose of remembrance. It is quiet, slightly sombre and with a peaceful beauty of its own. The trees form the ideal background, with their tall trunks reaching heavenwards and the intricate branches and leaves covering the sky in a delicate lacework.

I could have fun playing with alternate versions, even though it is unnecessary as the original version is fine.

For what it’s worth, here are two others. (Simply created by zooming on my iPad and taking screenshots, as I am spending the night in Berlin before taking the train to Warsaw tomorrow morning, so no more elaborate PP at the moment!)

In this version I tried to emphasise the mysticism, since the gravestones remind me of prehistoric standing stones.

…and in this one the emphasis is on the feeling of solitude and sorrow.

This one reminds me of Fireplace’s second shot this week, and triggers the same positive responses. Although the settings could hardly be more different, with yours in an urban setting and his in the Alps, both allow a glimpse through a hole in the subject in the foreground and fires the imagination.
I like all the lines and rectangles, which you use to present us with beauty in an unexpected place.

Thanks for the comments made on this photo. They have been very useful.
I seem to be alone in liking this, which I kind of suspected, and prompted me to ask the question in the first place. I will try reworking it, using different crops.
Roel, the interior is definitely worth a photo session too, and I may post some more interior photos at some point.