Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Glass Act


I'll be real honest here. I'm not all that in love with big, sleek, all glass buildings. The Birmingham Public Library has never been a place I particularly wanted to photograph. Well it's winter and I'm a little low on photos so I decided this would be a good time to step out of my "prissy French box", and see if I could find something there that interested me. This glass block wall was just the thing!

For my Birmingham readers, I will be teaching another photography workshop starting in March.
From Snapshots to Photographs
Visit my website for details


23 comments:

Olivier said...

très graphique, mais je n'aurais jamais pense que c'était dans une librairie

Pat said...

I like this. If you add a few tiny people on the lower right, it would look like a mega-building downtown somewhere.

Janet M Kincaid said...

Nice. Now it's my turn to drool!

Halcyon said...

You should get over there more often. This wall is great!

B SQUARED said...

It works for me!

Daryl said...

A friend has the most amazing 'stall' shower made out of those glass blocks .. that works well in monochrome ..

Anonymous said...

You know what I really miss? Those beautiful, shiny old wooden card catalogs. Sure, it's much easier to find what you want now, but it took real skill in the day.

(You need to visit PJ. She's posting all about Alabama this week.)

Louis la Vache said...

Indeed, this works well in monochrome. Like you, «Louis» isn't generally thrilled with what he calls the "Stacked Ice Cube Tray School of Architecture", but glass bricks have a nice retro feel to them.

TheChieftess said...

Fab photo V!!! Glad you were low on photos and found this!!!

AH..I miss the card catalogues too!!! My grandma was a librarian for 52 years...libraries are still special to me, even though I generally read paperbacks bought at the store!!!

Maya said...

Oooh, I like glass block. This is wonderful with the hard and wavy look.

TheChieftess said...

Ok...story time again...

The hubman and I stayed in a B&B in Florence, Oregon that was an old Craftsman house, charming exterior, charming lobby and dining area...then we went to our room...OMG!!!!

It had been redone...one end of the room was the bathroom...completely open to the room with a shower/bath in the corner. You had to climb about 3 or 4 steps up to the edge of the bath and then step in...no enclosure around the shower...no walls on the bathroom...and a glass brick wall on the outside wall (much like the one in V's pic), so you could see shapes of people outside if they walked by and I'm sure, vice versa. Fortunately, there was a rice paper room divider that shielded the toilet (vision only) from the rest of the room...maybe, had we been in our twenties and on our honeymoon...this might have been quite exciting...but not so much in our advanced middle age!!!!

TheChieftess said...

I forgot to mention that with all this zen-open- modern-bath design, the bedroom area was decorated in more of a WalMart special design and artwork!!!

However, the bed was fine, the B&B hosts delightful as well as informative about the Craftsman house, and the Hubman and I worked out a very amenable arrangement for requisite privacy!!! What more could you ask for???

Dina said...

Came out nice.
It must be nice and light inside.

Wish I could come to your workshop.
Meanwhile I'll use email.

Ken Mac said...

kinda streamline moderne. LIke the Cheyenne Diner!

Lowell said...

Nicely composed, V. What is a "prissy French box"?

Sounds like a pain in the glass!

Dimple said...

Hi,
I just came over from Dina's blog. I like your photos very much! This one is a wonderful combination of straight and curve, light and dark, and repeated patterns.

Virginia said...

Welcome Dina and Dimple!!!

Jacob,
It's where I live most of the time. I don't venture out of it much.

Chieftess,
I can't even think about that situation! Yikes.

Hiker,
We had one at my school till not many years ago. So neat and tidy!

Bob Crowe said...

The waving shape of the wall makes a cool effect, as if the two parts were completely separate. I bet you were listening to Philip Glass while you prepared this post.

Virginia said...

Bob,
Oh you bet your sweet bippy I was. Bang, bang, bang goes my head against that wall!!
V

PJ said...

It's interesting what we come up with when we're forced to. It's magnificent, V, a great abstract.

Eeyore said...

Nicccce.

Rob said...

Love this one!

seanjonesfoto said...

a stunning abstract! beautiful exposure. :)