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Posts Tagged ‘color’

Walk up the hill

Monday, September 13th, 2010

This weekend Catie and I decided to make the trek up Fourvière Hill to visit the basilica at the top. We took a long ambling route and walked a good six miles along the way. There is so much of Lyon to see! I am sure we have not even begun to scratch the surface. Mass was underway when we arrived, so we took a seat near the back and enjoyed the splendor of the cathedral and the beautiful French scripture, singing, and organ music.

Photo taken in Lyon, France on September 11, 2010.

Religion is not a part of my life, but I could see myself enjoying going to Mass in such a beautiful setting once a week here in Lyon. Perhaps the fact it is all in French and I can understand nothing they are saying aids in that feeling for me here.

After the church bells marked the end of Mass at the Basilica, we continued on to visit the Théâtres Romains de Fourvière, an ancient Roman theatre built originally around 15 BC. The scale was impressive to say the least – it seats about four thousand people now, but it used to house over eleven thousand. Usually “old things” in Europe just sort of get filed away in my brain with all of the other innumerable “old things” I have seen on this continent previously, but I found this theatre particularly awe-inspiring and moving. I wish I could catch just a glimpse of that theatre in all its glory, and see what a production two thousand years ago would have been like. Catie said she thinks they still put on shows in the venue, so maybe we’ll at least be able to have a modern day rendition of the experience.

Photos taken in Lyon, France on September 11, 2010.

Tags: cathedral, catie, color, dan, france, green, lyon, nature, orange, photos, photos by catie, photos by dan, plants, red, streets, view
Posted in france | 2 Comments »

From Bangladesh to France

Monday, September 6th, 2010

Through some series of strange events, instead of going back to Bangladesh for a another full year as planned, Catie and I have ended up living in Lyon, France for the next three months. Rather than try to explain this drastic change in our locale, I am just going to push forward and say that while I am very sad to not be returning to South Asia, France is unsurprisingly beautiful and so far I am loving it here. Catie and I have been to France before, but this is our first time in Lyon.

Photos taken in Lyon, France on September 4, 2010.

Tags: birds, black and white, catie, color, dan, france, lyon, night, photos, photos by catie, photos by dan, pigeons, streets
Posted in france | 4 Comments »

Victory Day parade

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

In honor of Victory Day, the students of AUW held a parade in the neighborhood around campus. Armed with signs, banners, and a great deal of red and green clothes and face paint, they marched out the driveway onto M.M. Ali Road and then made their away around the entire extended block (actually a triangle), singing and chanting the entire way. Unsurprisingly, the large group of vibrant vocal young women garnered a great deal of interest from the local residents, most of which stopped whatever they were doing as the procession passed, and some of which even got up and started to follow along the sides (taking as many camera phone pictures and videos as they possibly could along the way).

Photo taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on December 16, 2009.

After the students (and several participating staff and teachers) returned to campus, they continued to celebrate in the AUW driveway for quite a while. They sang songs, recited poetry, and took many pictures to remember the joyous event. The excess of color, noise, and positive energy flowing out of the huge group was a great symbol of the massive potential contained in such a passionate female student body that the university is working to help develop and enable to flourish. I promise I am not getting paid to write that questionably run-on sentence! It is just undeniably inspiring to see the power of AUW students in motion, especially in mass.

Photos taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on December 16, 2009.

Tags: auw, bangladesh, celebration, chittagong, color, holiday, locals, parade, photos, photos by dan, streets, students, women
Posted in bangladesh | 2 Comments »

Children of Chittagong, and more

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Near the beginning of December, right after the big four day AUW special visitor event that I photographed (which I think for now I’ll just let slip into general unmentioned obscurity), I had the opportunity to once again go out into Chittagong with Mow (the student who took me to some of the slums and other interesting locations around the city). She had the goal of talking to some child laborers, and also revisiting the refugee camp that we had been to once before. We did both, and combined with a short walk I took afterwards around my immediate neighborhood, it all made for an interesting and colorful day. I think I’ll leave it at that for now and let my images do most of the talking.

Photos taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on December 6, 2009.

Tags: animals, bangladesh, bengali colors, birds, bricks, chittagong, color, crows, dogs, green, kids, labor, locals, orange, photos, photos by dan, refugee camp, slums
Posted in bangladesh | 5 Comments »

When the animals were still alive

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

As I mentioned in my previous post, Denise Catie and I headed out early on the morning of Eid al-Adha to admire the many cows, goats, and sheep in all their decorated splendor before the sacrifices began. Once we stumbled into a residential neighborhood we had plenty of opportunity to do just that, and our mission was aided by friendly kids who were more than happy to lead us to all the biggest and most impressive cows.

It was hard to look into the animals’ faces knowing that they were all going to be killed in just a couple of hours time. They amounted to such a great volume of life filling the empty streets, and I couldn’t get over the fact that all that energy, that vital mass, and quite literally that organic material was about to be spilt, drained, and finished. It was a heavy notion to say the least. I’m sure my tendencies of projection and anthropomorphism were on overdrive given the charged circumstances, but at times it felt like you could could see in the animals’ eyes an understanding of why they were there and what was about to happen. One cow in particular certainly appeared to have no misconception about the day’s plans as it stubbornly resisted the efforts of a whole group of men to move it down the street to its final resting place.

Photo taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on November 28, 2009.

Perhaps it was inspired by the texture of the cows’ hides or the striking contrast of their deep dark eyes, and maybe it helped me to emotionally distance myself from my subjects, but for one reason or another I shot mostly in black and white early that morning. As the day went on and the sacrifices began, I continued to shoot and view my images that way (although I had my camera record duplicate copies in color as well). I think it made the day easier for me to handle as it happened. Blood is not nearly as affecting when it appears as a mild shade of gray on an LCD screen, after all. (Consider this your second fair warning of some imminent violent imagery to come…)