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First Snow (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 12 January 2014
ghost ship in winter harbour
beneath a patina of snow
glows eerily in grey gloomworld
myopic wonderment
St. Elmo's fire crackling
around starboard rigging
St. Elmo's fire crackling
around starboard rigging
could be decorative wreath
of electric lights
Black is Black version (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 16 January 2014
Old Town Stockholm, first December morning -15 degrees C: photo by Mikael Jeney, 1 December 2010
F (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 18 January 2014
COOLD (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 18 January 2014
Ice Fall (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 18 January 2014
Ice Grip (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 18 January 2014
Ice Grip II (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 18 January 2014
I think this is a really fine interpretation and it's great to segue from yesterday's final Stockholm winter weather photo to these and the final crescendo of the ice-gripped vessel. Reading and seeing this made me think in succession of Graham Greene's England Made Me (since I've never visited Stockholm, it remains my most vivid picture of the city), the ghost ship at night etched in ice photo on my computer's desktop, which has been coincidentally hanging around, and the totally iced-up/winter sun illuminated windows directly behind where I'm sitting now. I could easily tolerate some silent myopic wonderment today instead of less appealing myopic alternatives. Curtis
ReplyDeleteYes, I am all for myopic wonderment.
ReplyDeleteIt's so cold here!
One can’t help but feel iced in and snowbound today, even if the snow is a mere three inches. It’s cold here too (a hard freeze in fact), under an impeccable, blue sky.
ReplyDeleteThanks to all assembled friendly shiverers.
ReplyDeleteWith this photographer's work, as with that of others I've been following all through this unusually stark, black-and-whitish winter, I have been particularly interested in the shifts in tone and mood and expressiveness between black and white and colour.
Here, that is obviously the interest in the meditation on the two top shots (taken a few days apart).
At times Mikael Jeney's work makes me think of painting, and this is no accident as he says his inspiration derives principally from art and mathematics.
He lists his favourite painters as Anders Zorn, Carl Larsson, Bruno Liljefors, Van Gogh, Claude Monet, John Bauer and Pinocchio.
"I use all kind of cameras from analogue to digital, [de]pending on which mood I am in."
... and meanwhile, for those stranded in icy northern cities and towns, there may or may not be consolation in remembering that it's always colder somewhere else... unless you're in Yakutsk.
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful to view and learn about Mikael Jeney's photography. I remember reading once before about Yakutsk, something about how automobile engines can never be switched off or they'll never turno on again. The dog has a noble face and, obviously, character. He or she has that total "I'm on the job" look that reminds me of my own dachshund Edie who is never deterred from her purpose. It's amazing to think that by June southeastern Pennsylvania will be sweltering again. Curtis
ReplyDeleteThat "could be" is a lovely bit of judicious uncertainty.
ReplyDeleteWell, that dog looks almost as unhappy as anyone who attempted to violate the frozen sanctity of the premises would very likely soon become.
ReplyDeleteI dwell in uncertainty continually, as a sort of dwelling medium, these grey blurry years.
But I believe that is the first time anyone has been generous enough to accuse me of judiciousness.