Lux Fine Photography

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Reworking No.2

I think I like this version better than the other version of No.2. I just like all the detail - similar to what you get when you take the time to look at a Pollock.

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

I love visiting the Tate Modern - I admit it is my favourite British Museum. I had just finished looking at one of the exhibitions and was walking past the balcony and saw these two admiring the view of the Thames, St Paul's Cathedral and over the Millennium Bridge. I snapped the shot and left them admiring the view and none the wiser.

Monday, 11 April 2011

Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, Leicestershire

A twelve km hike there and back from our place, it was a lovely day for it though. The church itself is very functional for me and very much what you see is what you get. Which I think is fine it is a functioning church and monastery - lovely place for a picnic, which we saw a number of families doing on the large green spaces.

From Wikipedia:

"Mount St Bernard's Abbey was founded in 1835 on 222 acres (0.90 km²) of land given by Ambrose de Lisle, who wanted to re-introduce monastic life to the country. He was helped by a loan from Bishop Thomas Walsh, the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District. At first, the monks lived in a four-roomed cottage but later domestic buildings and a chapel were built. The first monks were Augustine, Luke, Xavier, Cyprian, Placid, Simeon and Fr. Odilo Woolfrey. The first monastery was opened in 1837, designed by William Railton. The permanent monastery, as it stands today, was completed in 1844 with donations from John Talbot, the 16th earl of Shrewsbury, and other benefactors. It was designed by Augustus Pugin, who offered his services free. In 1848, it was granted the status of an abbey by Pope Pius IX and its first abbot was appointed, Dom Bernard Palmer. It was united with the Cistercian congregation by a papal brief in 1849.

In 1856 a reformatory school for young Catholic delinquents was founded at Mount Saint Bernard. It closed in 1881 after several episodes of disorder, but re-opened temporarily in 1884-5 to house boys who had burnt and sunk their own reformatory ship moored in the Mersey. The abbey suffered from financial problems and a lack of monks joining the community through the nineteenth century. This improved in the twentieth century and the church was extended between 1935 and 1939, although it was not consecrated until 1945, by the Bishop of Nottingham. Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi was a monk at the abbey from 1950 until his death in 1964.

The monks get up at 3.15am every day and go to bed at 8.00 pm. The three focuses of monastic life at Mount St Bernard's Abbey are prayer, work and reading with study. They take part in daily liturgical prayer, known as Opus Dei or Canonical Hours. They meditatively read the Bible, which is called Lectio Divina. Silence and solitude are very important to the order and the abbey. Their work includes running their 200-acre (0.81 km²) dairy farm, pottery, bookbinding, beekeeping and tending the vegetable garden and orchard. They also run a gift shop where they sell the items that they make in the abbey. The abbey has a guesthouse for friends and family of the monks, retreatants and those who are interested in the monastic life."

Sunday, 10 April 2011

No. 13

These lovely trees surround the Broadmarsh reservoir, Shepshed, attached to one of the trees was a sign saying keep out. Which is understandable you don't want people swimming in drinking water. I love how the trees look the part like they are guarding the land. I also like how it reminds me of silent movie backgrounds.

Saturday, 9 April 2011

No. 12

Fresh off the boat so to speak. We walked to Mount Saint Bernards Abbey, just outside of Shepshed, Leicestershire. It was a lovely day today, very sunny with a hint of breeze. We walked through the Broadmarsh Reservoir and slogged up the hill - this is halfway up the hill in between the reservoir and the abbey.

Friday, 8 April 2011

Jewish Memorial, Berlin

Perspective is a wonderful thing.

From Berlin.de:

"Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial, located in Mitte on a stretch of the former “death strip”, where the Wall once stood near the Brandenburg Gate, is Berlin’s stunning monument to the Holocaust, dedicated to the Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide of World War II. Impressive in its awesome grey soberness, rather than sombreness, it includes an underground Ort der Information (Information Centre) located on the south-eastern side of the memorial grounds, accessible via two flights of stairs or a lift.  

The 800sqm Information Centre complements the abstraction of the memorial with personal documentation about individuals and families. This includes biographical details, recordings and information about memorial sites throughout Germany and Europe. Documenting the universal issue of genocide, the centre represents a central focus on the diverse memorial sites across Germany which stress the living memory aspect of remembrance. In Berlin an examples of this is the Stolpersteine (tripping stones) initiative – plaques on street pavements, usually outside the house’s main entrance, commemorating deported Jewish residents.  

It took 17 years for the Memorial to be completed in Berlin. Its foundation stone was a Bundestag resolution passed on June 25, 1999 to erect a Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was followed by years of discussion and deliberation, until the Monument was completed on May 8, 2005. US architect Peter Eisenmann conceived the winning design consisting of 2711 rectangular blocks of concrete laid out in grid formation, recalling tombstones. The monument is open day and night and it is possible to walk through the concrete slabs at one’s own pace. Visitors are not allowed to climb on them though, something which is particularly hard for younger visitors and small children to resist. The effect is that of inner dislocation in a destabilising maze as the ground is uneven and the blocks vary in height and size. An ideal setting for quiet contemplation."

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Pretty, Pretty Sainsbury's

Hottest day of the year so far! Sainsbury's is not really somewhere where you'd think of funky dunky squares of coolness - but what do I know? I liked how almost every window pane was showing something different, even when they were reflecting the same object.