Photographer's Note
It's a very cold Sunday morning - the night after the 'Rocket' Party - a wonderful dance filled event in a theatre scenery factory in Nottingham. By 4 a.m. the world has taken on increasingly surreal tones - an indoor wall of stars, constant snow falling from the roof, a wall of sound - I remember nothing of the taxi back except getting out of it. We tuck into the remains of an amazing meal our friends had cooked the night before - it's 5.30 a.m.
I wake at 8 a.m. - there's no going back to sleep and I don't know where the energy is coming from but I decide to go for a walk around the city with my camera. My wife is sensible. By the time I took this shot it was mid afternoon - Nottingham has taken on this weird slant again - everything seems wobbly - or perhaps that's me - I need to eat I think!
After the Rocket Party everything seems a little strange! All the buses coming down Mansfield Road reflect an amazing cloudscape and I become fascinated by the variety of the reflections - they've built these new buses just for artists and photographers - this one is reflecting the most significant landmark building in Nottingham city centre - the Clock Tower and residential flats of the Victoria Shopping Centre.
Many years ago I was invited to a new national forum which was designed to bring artists and architects together - the first forum was held in Nottingham. The flats in this picture had a drab and dreary outlook to them but they also had individuality and colour through different curtains and washing hanging at different windows.It looked lively and human and no mistaking human beings lived there. I regret I didn't photograph it when it was like this.
At the meeting the City Council and the artist who had been commissioned to change the appearance of the building into the subtly coloured, corporate, business like building it now is - (you might never guess that people lived there) - gave a long speil about how the residents had been involved in this great transformation - basically they chose the two main colours of the building through some simple consultation - Hundertwasser would have turned in his grave if he knew!. All of this cost an extraordinary amount of money and made the City Council and the artist very happy - I haven't seen a curtain or a piece of washing at those windows since. The colour and life - human life has disappeared.
I suggested that we were looking at an Emperor with no clothes at the meeting and having just come back from India cited a number of reasons why I felt this new building was soul-less - it split the room and the meeting which got very heated - I was never invited to participate again!
Perhaps too colourful - too much washing hanging out to dry - not enough corporate compliance.
Well here is the building as I want to show it rather than as the architects of anonimity would have it - I have included the odd human being.
alekpet, bantonbuju, everlasting, designsoul, wilkinsonsg has marked this note useful
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ALSOM
(6616) 2005-12-20 5:25
Hi Kev,
this shot reminds my stay in Vancouver where I took same reflection from a bus.
A nice fish-eye with a double POV ! Good idea to keep some bus colors.
TFS, Al.
Furachan
(0) 2005-12-20 5:29
Beautiful, Kev...both the reflections in the windshield, with the bewildered driver and your own reflections in what is one of your best notes...ever.
It's like an old acid trip, following your thoughts at every stage to then go back to the photo and say "Ah...."
Francis
alekpet
(4663) 2005-12-20 5:43
OK, I see. It's a reflection, so it's 15:35. I am amazed how your wife is patient and understanding. I guess you've shown her this picture. The odd secondary "Irish" colours, green and orange framing the primary "British" colours, red and blue with a good contribution of the white. A "Union jack" inside an Irish flag. Wait a minute? You're not in N. Ireland, so there is no connection to it here. That is just an ordinary bus driver perhaps finishing his day shift, looking discussed at the view this building offers him every day. It's not a symbolic picture it's a plain humane one. He sees the clock and says, well, there is my wife at home waiting for me, let me finish this tour. Kev has also got his shot and his wife forgives him, because of the masterfull picture he has brought back. They are both home, happy. The building stays in all it's pride or shame.
take care, Aleks
everlasting
(19680) 2005-12-20 9:34
Clever note! Keep hangign your wahign out to air, kev.
The driver seems perplexed at what he is witnessing, maybe he should not have goen to the Rocket party :)
PS my post today is for you
designsoul
(17843) 2005-12-20 9:56
You have made a near-Hundertwasser shot of the building you describe so well, Kev... your note brings up many feelings. My father being an architect, ever since a little girl I was always shown by him both the beautiful treasures and the dreaded pieces during our walks, so it is very easy for me to be turned off by the slightest horror others might not even notice... a bit of a curse, too, especially in the New World... but coming back to your wonderful shot with the stoic bus driver and the marvellously undulating reflections of these buildings, it is a wonderful "twist" to the story you tell... I congratulate you with all my heart for speaking out against inhuman drabness, for losing your participation in these futile meetings thereon... bravo, Kev!!!
A great work, with an excellent note to match,
sasa
Ebbe
(9625) 2005-12-20 13:18
A bit on the psycedelic side here but I can´t take my eyes of it. The colors of the bus are in a very hard colorscale compared to the scale of the reflection and the same goes for the lines. The numb looking face in the middle of it makes the picture.
wilkinsonsg
(8662) 2005-12-21 13:59
A good observation, and reflections, both image and notes - TFS :)
Photo Information
-
Copyright: Kev Ryan (KevRyan)
(22956)
- Genre: ËÞÄÈ
- Medium: ÖÂÅÒÍÎÉ
- Date Taken: 2005-12-18
- Categories: ÅÆÅÄÍÅÂÍÎÅ, ÒÐÀÍÑÏÎÐÒ, ÀÐÕÈÒÅÊÒÓÐÀ
- Camera: Canon EOS 10D
- Âåðñèÿ: Îðèãèíàëüíàÿ âåðñèÿ
- Òåìû: Reflections, Nottingham [view contributor(s)]
- Date Submitted: 2005-12-20 5:20
Discussions
- To alekpet: hahaha! Great note! (4)
by KevRyan, last updated 2005-12-20 07:36