Tag: storytelling

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blog #23 The Seven Acts of Mercy

In Naples / Napoli (It.) around the year 1600 a painter arrived and made a painting which till today remains very interesting: The Seven Acts of Mercy
These acts are things you can do and probably must do as human on a daily basis to help people in trouble: give a poor man something to eat; give a rifugiato / fugitive / immigrant a place to sleep ..

Encountering many people in difficult situations often through no fault of their own is an invitation to learn something about yourself .. and maybe change.

This man wrote a letter or two home in far away Africa .. but those letters never got send and were blowing in the wind.

This painter is as you probably know Caravaggio .. the one with the high contrast in his paintings

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blog #20 Colossus of Paris

One of the Seven Wonders of the New World

How the brain works .. we see what we think we see.
The Grande Arche in Paris is standing at the end of a long axis from the Louvre through the Arc de Triomphe to La Defense where it ends at the steps of this huge building. The huge space in front of the Grande Arche is something to inspire photographers and artists from around the world.
The Grande Arche is simply said a frame .. a huge frame with nothing in it but air .. or heaven if you wish.
Good to know that the square has been created for people from all over the world to meet .. all kinds of people, all culture4s, all genders, all colors, all ages etc.
I imagine all kinds of art there at the square and inside the frame. My suggestion is to place several statues of Colossus there at specific well chosen locations to mark the space and the proportions of the building and the people. Preferably in different colors and one wrapped in cloth to honor Christo (who did not do the Arche by the way).

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blog #19 Paris transformations

Only when you have time to watch closer

Paris street corner with a view. And what is in this view exactly? Old neglected house .. cafe probably .. closed. An African man walking there like he lives in the neighborhood. He walks to the left, out of the picture. A young man entering the door at the corner of the house with a case coming from the airport, for an Airbnb stay? He enters the image – from left to right how ‘we’ read – and the house, introducing the new?
How big is the chance they will see each other? And meet? In the mirroring glass we see a new building, money well spent on the walls and window cases. Is the neighborhood about to change?
created April 18, postproduction May 27, 2023
Leica M10, 24mm Summilux
©Paul Struijk

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blog #17 The doors of perception

Naples: A marriage of heaven and hell

I walk to my home in Napoli / Naples over the Decumano Superiore (Via Anticaglia) and cannot believe my eyes. The Roman amphitheater is still visible in the structure of the streets and houses. Two thousand years of layers on top of layers. My house is built on and in the amphitheater. I am in heaven!! But the next moment I have to jump for my life when a scooter tries to go even faster when his eyes focus on me .. hell.
I find safety in one of the gates to a caravanserai like courtyard. These gates are huge. But the door to enter is very tiny indeed.