These dummies look miserable as all hell, but then again that gives a sense of authenticity to the scene. I like the way the light has caught the ‘woman’s’ smock; actually, as models these two were more co-operative than real husband-and-wife stevedores doubtless would have been in a comparable situation.
Haven’t done a ‘pure’ landscape for a while — not since the last time I was around the Lake District, I guess. Not a coincidence, there are just so many more of them round there.
The tripod, the docked iPod, the discarded costumery; the wife must want one of her routines filming. Happy to oblige.
Joe had spent the weekend at my parents’ while we were in Hamburg, so I went to pick him up today. I could have hired a car and driven in two hours, but I took my time, went by train and savoured the day. I’m on holiday, who wants to drive.
Incidentally, this line is a rare example of one that was reopened (in 1995) after the infamous “Beeching axe” originally fell on it in the 1960s. The reopening happened under a Tory government too. Probably because it was a marginal seat, or maybe the party was still run by sane people at the time. Anyway; what you see here are the tracks extending out over a high viaduct over the River Hodder.
If you like football, and you have any kind of countercultural leanings, you gotta like FC St. Pauli of Hamburg. Either you know why or you don’t. This is one of the reasons I wanted to come to the city. Shame they lost today, mind.
I must admit that I thought Hamburg would be a rather modern and industrial kind of place. Actually it’s a very attractive city, plenty of old buildings and lots of green space. We walked every day through this park, called Planten un Blomen. My real target in this picture was the dog, but as I took the shot the girl turned round, the runner came past, and I think they all make a nice little set.
Although it has managed to sneak onto the ‘Best of the Rest’ page thanks to an aerial photo (of Frankfurt) this is Germany’s first proper appearance on the blog: and this is probably its most notorious street, the heart of Hamburg’s red-light district. Well, why not. You gotta do these things now and again. Actually compared to Amsterdam’s it’s rather tame, though interesting. Clare’s sat to my right as this picture was taken, in case you were wondering.
The neon guitar in the background, by the way, marks the site of the Kaiserkeller, one of the host venues for the Beatles’ now-legendary Hamburg gigs in 1961. Probably if you counted the number of people who claimed to be there, it’s in the several millions by now.
You saw Whitelocks not so long ago but, well, here it is again. The channellng of the sun down the alley to hit the blonde hair was too nice to resist. This was the prelude to a long weekend away, which I’ve just returned from, so there’s some catching up to do.
Another little corner of town. No symbolic intent, I just like the aesthetics of the shot. This has been the most Hebden Bridge-bound passage of the blog, since mid-June. However, I’ve finished the first draft of the book, am having two weeks off and travelling a great deal more over the next month. So perhaps the arrow does have a symbolic meaning after all.
This demolition site — old industrial premises — in the centre of town has been close to getting on the blog for a couple of weeks now, today it’s made it. Seems a bit strange to be sweeping up at the start of the working day, but I’m just a sedentary intellectual type, what do I know.
