This image, titled Puglia, was taken in 1978 by Franco Fontana. It depicts the flowering plains of the southern Italian region of the same name. It is a relatively flat, arid region with abundant clear skies. It is a simple but striking contrast between a flowering yellow field and the sky above. The two clouds rise over a distant hill almost in the form of smoke signals. It is a simple, yet striking image of an overlooked region of Italy. A region I came to love in my time there.

Franco Fontana is an Italian photographer who has been working the craft for over 50 years. He has exhibited and published around the world, as well as working with advertising campaigns. His images are typically vibrant, regardless of the subject matter. He has documented many subjects in his career, from landscapes and portraits to nudes and still life images.

I was pretty busy getting ready for a trip to the cabin last Friday. Somehow the shutter got stuck and I found this image in the camera. Hmmm ... 

Here is one opinion of order - a neat, regular pattern, relatively permanent in it's place. It's called a herringbone pattern in the bricklayer trade. Bricks weigh about 3.8 pounds each and come in a nearly infinite variety of colors and textures. Shopping for bricks and picking patterns is really a chaotic exercise in order. 

The good news is that I got my own copy of Photoshop. The bad news is there was no manual, and I had to figure out everything on my own ...

This photograph by Martin Parr, entitled "Beach Dome," was taken in 1996.

It appears to be a fun beach scene with vibrant colors and happy people, but the more you look at it, the more interesting the picture becomes. The upper edge of the picture shows a ceiling and a fake background which continues the ocean scene. It doesn't appear to be a staged photo, but it's deceptive because it's not a real beach, but the people in the photo have suspended their disbelief and are having a good time at the fake beach.

The subject is easily hundreds of people enjoying a day at an indoor beach. Because the picture was taken in 1996, it's easy to say that it was taken with color film on either a small, medium or large format camera. The picture was taken from a high view and it was focused at an aperture of f/16-f/22. And the shutter speed would have had to be relatively fast because there were people moving and splashing and having a good time at the beach. It doesn't appear to be staged because it seems as though it's a normal past time to go to an indoor beach (especially while in London where it is cloudy a lot of the time). There were a lot of different versions of the picture online because it's widely known and duplicated, so there were different edits and some with high contrast and low contrast, and others were large scale and some were smaller scale. However, the picture was the same throughout. I can imagine that Martin intended to have this picture be highly contrasted because his technique and style shows that he really likes bright and vibrant colors.

This was taken in an "Ocean Dome" which we assume is an indoor waterpark in England. It seems as though all of his work is connected. We are unsure if this photo is included in a larger body of work or a series, but he has lots of pictures of people at beaches (mostly outdoor). We think that this work is unique because we've never seen any other photographs like his in that particular time period. A lot of professional photographers work was done in black and white film, but Martin's work seems to embrace color which is what a lot of people feared then.

The culture climate of England is what makes this photo stand out so much. You can't build an indoor ocean in Florida and expect people to attend because they have that weather all the time. In England, it's obvious that scene has more of an impact on the every day life of the population.

Looking across the years

I'd like to come back as a cat. Probably tough to come back as my cat though ... Can't mess with the time-space continuum like that. She's got the best job in the world, and a pretty good philosophy to live by. 

 For now I'll just have to be happy with what I'm doing now.