A nice evening out with the family in Vientiane, Laos might mean a visit to an amusement park along the Mekong river. The park is gritty, strictly a local attraction, sitting in the flood plain of the river, nestled in the old downtown area of the city. There’s a mix of rides, games (a prize can be a beer), eating, the usual attractions for everyone to enjoy. At night, the place takes on a bit of a noir-ish vibe, all brightly lit against the endless darkness over the nearby river.
There’s an old, Soviet-era, biology museum on the campus of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Maybe created in the 1950’s, 1960’s, ’70’s, who knows? For teaching students, the public, no one anymore? Whatever its original purpose, the museum’s collection is still mostly intact and available for appreciation and study.
One long hallway is lined with cases devoted to sea, aquatic life. Fish, snakes, lizards, frogs, sometimes in glass vials, filled with formaldehyde. The specimens and vials have been placed in appropriate environments, creating a fantasy, still life effect.
In the Kazakhstan capital city of Astana, there’s a large 3D map attraction of various important sites from around the country. It feels like a miniature golf course, if the amusement included hotels, dams, oil rigs, sculptures, monuments, offices, a stranded ship on a dried up sea, open pit mining, mosques. The site is part history, part architecture, part robust model making that has to survive outside through harsh winters.
Shot at certain angles and perspectives, the models take on an etherial look. The dream of the miniature makers, the dream of a nation.
Yangiobod is a giant open air, flea market in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It oozes near railroad tracks and in and around old warehouses. The warehouses are used for storage, some shops, places for industrial parts, fish, old communist items, even a café.
There’s an Old Master painting quality to the settings, a quiet, grand, darkened light vibe to the spaces. Sense of time and place fades away.
The Tashkent zoo in Uzbekistan has a wonderful collection of handcrafted animal cages, mostly for amphibians and apes. There are painted walls to look like exotic jungle flora, craggy rock formations of concrete. The environments take on their own aura, full of abstract details and mystery. When captured in a photograph, the elements are transformed into a landscape painting.
Australia has its own style, manifested in its unique landscape, architecture and culture. The results from a recent wander.
There’s a senior retirement home in Melbourne, Australia that’s busy constructing a new wing. Surrounding the building site is a standard fence, wrapped in a colorful advertisement for the place. The usual teasers are present, bullet points on new features, apartment sizes, services available. There are also a series of images to help you visualize the new place, to assist in showing what it will be. What will your life look like?
Taking an ominous look at the mansions outside Washington DC during the waning days of fall.
With more than 38 million people living in its metropolitan area, Tokyo is the most populous city in the world. What would the city look like without people? How would it be possible to witness Tokyo as just empty streets and buildings? If you visit the city around the summer solstice, sunrise occurs about 4:30am. Set your alarm clock, get out there early and Tokyo is all yours.
In Medan, Indonesia, Dr H. Rahmat Shah started a museum of animal taxidermy, to best preserve all the creatures he hunted. It’s an overwhelming collection, practically every species is represented. The following images are a heavily curated and art-directed taste of the animals.
A Ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn, featuring sparse rooms with tatami mats, a hot bath communal onsen and elaborate heritage meals. It’s all about relaxation, from the baths, the natural setting, to the quiet atmosphere.
Many Ryokans are now a mash up of the old traditions with a modern, high-rise hotel. The Ryokan signatures are there, only now in a big, modern building.
These images were taken at a Ryokan on Gosho lake, near Morioka.
Cheah Kongsi is a Chinese clan house in Penang, Malaysia. It looks like a Chinese temple but it’s a fraternal organization, started in the mid 1800’s to assist the waves of Chinese immigrants arriving in Malaysia for work on the docks, in the tin mines, wherever hard labor was needed.
The young men were frequently alone, didn’t speak the language and had no ability to establish themselves in a foreign land. Cheah Kongsi provided all of the necessities, from housing, healthcare to social opportunities that would lead to marriage and a family. Today, workers no longer immigrate from China. The Kongsi is transitioning to education and geriatric support for families already part of the community.
Here is a set of images depicting current members and details of the clan house.
Combine light gray skies, modern architecture and an over-exposed camera setting and one gets intoxicating results.
There's an interesting style to construction sites in Kuala Lumpur. Sure, the tools, noise and dust are the same as you'll find around the world. It's how they fence in their sites. For some reason, developers go to an extra effort to encircle their projects in fencing that's covered with pristine scenes of beautiful nature. It's a weird choice, paying homage to a world that was never at the location (northern woods in a tropical location) and most certainly never will be once their skyscraper is completed.
Enjoy the fantasy.
The Ayala Museum in Manila, Philippines has an amazing section of elaborate dioramas that tell the history of the country. It's an impressive collection, 60 dioramas, full of history, details, wood carvings.
Beyond taking in the history lessons, one can concentrate on the emotions of the figures and the settings to create new compositions.
A look at some of the people around Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
When walking around Arlington, Virginia, time and perception go through their inevitable, random transformations.
Sometimes interesting places to photograph are virtual. Why limit your environment to the physical? Depending on the video game, there can be all sorts of freedom to wander, choose a scene, set your angle and get your creative shot.
When parents move out of a house after more than 40 years, what's left behind? Here are some details.
With apologies to Miles Davis, some images from a recent visit to Spain.
