streetphotography

farewell wordpress wpc

Image | | andy townend

Like many people, I suspect, I am saddened to see the unannounced demise of the WordPress weekly photo challenge. In the early days of salamancastreets the weekly prompts from the WordPress team often offered a much needed spur to action, created a platform and built a community.

The WordPress team, and their occasional guests, created a cherished sense of community. They will be missed.

How to choose a favourite? Not exactly Sophie’s Choice I know, but hey guys, you may be ripping out the soul from your blogging platform. Why not at least have issued some kind of warning, canvassed opinion, or even sought out those willing to carry the torch?

So, I publish again my very first photo for this esteemed challenge.

See also my posts on belgradestreets, andytownend and belgianstreets……

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lloviendo

Image | | andy townend

i woke to the sound of rain
― sylvia plath, the bell jar

see me

the face

in the rain

see me

the fingers

on the pane

see me

before

i am

wiped

away

*one of a series of shots made in salamanca with my ancient olympus om10, with zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens, and loaded with ilford xp2 super ISO 400 film*

plaza

Image | | andy townend

“Look at the rain long enough, with no thoughts in your head, and you gradually feel your body falling loose, shaking free of the world of reality. Rain has the power to hypnotize.”
― Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun

We often spend time wondering who, where, or perhaps what we are.

What we’d rather be.

Maybe, our lives would be better if we simply accepted who we are, where we are.

And what we have.

Let the rain wash over us, cleanse us.

Make us whole again.

And maybe then, we’d rather not need to be anything that we are not.

Already.

A thoughtful piece for this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo challenge which posed the rhetorical question ‘I’d rather be’

And, in an odd way, the fact that each of these shots was captured, in Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor, with a 35 year old Olympus OM 10 with a battered Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens and a fresh roll of Ilford XP2 Super ISO400, and posted here edit free, says something about where I’d rather be too.

Perhaps.

frame

Image | | andy townend

To the complaint, ‘There are no people in these photographs,’ I respond, There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.
― Ansel Adams

2016_08_27_26937-Edit

For WordPress weekly photo challenge – frame
*Shot with Nikon D700 and AF 80-200mm f/2.8 D lens, ISO200, 100mm f/2.8 1/800s, edited in Lightroom CC and Analog Efex Pro 2*

See also my contribution at andytownend

face

Image | | andy townend

andy townend

Every face, every shop, bedroom window, public-house, and dark square is a picture feverishly turned

Virginia Woolf

2016_05_12_13440

I took this shot yesterday during a photoshoot for my (relatively) new photo-reportage site salamancastreets.

My post (which will feature some graffiti) from that shoot has not been finalised but this image seemed to fit the challenge perfectly?

for wordpress weekly photo challenge – face

*shot with nikon d700 and nikkor 50mm af-s f/1.4G lens , no edits*

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Empty Chairs

Image | | andy townend

don’t ask me what your sacrifice was for, empty chairs at empty tables
― lyrics from empty chairs at empty tables, les miserables

I shot these images of empty chairs at empty tables around the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca, a couple of weeks ago, planned to post them and then quite forgot to do so.

I post them now in a moment of reflection, to remember all those who have lost loved ones in Brussels this week, and for so many others, in so many places in the world, who have lost their lives as victims of senseless violence.

United we stand.
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