Photography | The Daily Norm

Oct 23

The Zaragoza files: Photos that didn’t fit anywhere else

Sunny mornings reflecting on glistening damp cobbles and fountains playfully dancing in the soaring glint of the light; a modern bridge’s reflection making a perfect ‘X’ in the River Ebro, and an old tower’s noticeable lean giving rise to the question why Pisa is so famously unique across the world; bonze statues and balloon sellers, curly pillars and chocolate coloured leaves, and the charismatic lottery seller who plies his trade on wheels – these are the photographs of Zaragoza which didn’t quite fit into my other posts of the city; a miscellaneous study of the spirited old town in the early mornings and late at night, when the roaring Fiesta del Pilar was not otherwise shaking the city with its party beat.

These photos are about reflection: from the ancient church tower reflected in a modern mirrored glass window to the Basilica del Pilar so perfectly captured in my mother’s sunglasses. They are also about the buildings which may go overlooked besides the vast four towered-spectacle of Zaragoza’s main Basilica, and about the Basilica itself, its four towers soaring skywards in the twilight. They are about the overlapping layers of history portrayed in a photographic composition – with ancient Visigoth walls in the foreground and a modernist market behind; and they are about the sheer beauty of the colours of the streets and the trees stood alongside them which looked so stunning in the sunny autumn light.

I give you: Zaragoza.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Oct 22

Zaragoza – Day 2: La Ofrenda de Flores

Looking out of the window in the city of Zaragoza on Sunday the 12^th October was a bizarre experience. On the streets there was not a single car or vehicle which resembled modern times, but instead, passers by and groups of people walked along and gathered in the otherwise empty streets wearing incredible period costume. Decked out in heavy silken dresses, embroidered cloaks, wooden clogs, extravagantly frayed shawls and floral headdresses, the inhabitants of Zaragoza looked either like they had gone back in time, or were appearing as extras in a Hollywood blockbuster. But before I could conclude that I had somehow awoken in a dream, scenes from local television flashing up on the television screen at the end of my bed betrayed the truth: that this was no Hollywood blockbuster, but an event surely worthy of the live film reel remitting images of the event onto TV screens all over Spain. Showing extraordinary images of the streets of Zaragoza packed to the rafters with locals wearing traditional costume and carrying bouquets of flowers, the cameras had captured the very centre point of the Fiestas del Pilar – the Offering of the Flowers.

Floral dedications being carried by traditionally dressed locals towards the Plaza del Pilar

La Ofrenda des Flores (the offering of flowers) is a great demonstration of the people’s devotion to the patron saint of the city, the Virgen del Pillar, during which hundreds of thousands of people, dressed in the traditional costume of Aragon or of any other region in Spain, bring flowers to the Virgin, a statue of whom is placed in the centre of the Plaza del Pilar. Around the statue stood on high, an army of volunteers slot the flowers offered into a vast pyramidal structure, tiling a huge sloping flower mantle around the Virgin, which remains in the square for the rest of the festival so that all the people in the city can see it. From an early beginning, when the first bouquets filled the area of the mantel immediately below the glinting gilded statue, we were lucky enough to see this vast floral cape as it gradually filled with floral tributes, while thousands more offers flooded into the square, brought by locals queuing patiently in their lavish local costumes and entertained by a wide variety of superb traditional dancing and music shows.

Handing over the flowers and the vast floral mantel built around the Virgen del Pilar

It was an incredible event to watch and be part of, from regarding the vast human river of flower-carrying locals slowly winding its passage all the way down from the main thoroughfares North of the city to the vast Plaza del Pilar, to seeing the great floral mantel slowly develop flower by flower. The air was filled with human spirit, with shared happiness and with a tangible expression of positivity and celebration, and was certainly an unmissable event in all of my adventures in Spain.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Oct 21

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Zaragoza Focus – All the fun of the fiesta

From the moment we arrived in Zaragoza in North Eastern Spain, continuing right up to (and no doubt beyond) the time we left, the city was tangibly pumping with the rhythm of fiesta. The leafy squares and vast piazzas standing amidst Zaragoza’s world-famous cathedrals were alive with open air concerts playing throughout the day and evening; the streets were packed so full of people that it took 10 minutes to make one’s way even down the shortest; the skies periodically erupted with the pop and crackle of a distant firework display; tapas bars and restaurants were full to over brimming; and the air was filled with helium balloons of every shape and size and bubbles blown by children. And despite all of the inconvenience and noise that this festival inevitably created, there is no denying the magical atmosphere that filled the air, as the whole city seemed bound by an intangible electricity of celebration, and almost the entirety of its population came out to enjoy the party, to stroll in the crowds, to listen to the live music, to dance in the streets.

This selection of photographs attempts to convey something of the atmosphere which filled every inch of Zaragoza when we made a visit the weekend before last. The reason for the festival was the Fiestas del Pilar, an annual ten day celebration, centred around a religious festival when huge crowds pay homage to the patron saint of the city: the Virgen del Pillar, but actually incorporating a packed programme of traditional music, modern pop, excuses to dance, and occasions to get out, eat and meet with loved ones and friends. And no wonder it was so crowded: for this annual festival is not only the biggest in Zaragoza, but one of the largest in all of Spain attracting thousands from outside of the city, and indeed the country: like us. It certainly was something unique, and made our visit to Zaragoza a hundred times more memorable.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Oct 8

Watery Wonder of Wandsworth in the Autumn Light

After a rare extension of English summer temperatures to the end of September, the inevitable onset of autumn last weekend was heralded by a sudden drop in temperatures, but also a very welcome burst of sharp strong sunshine. Waking to the sunrays peeking their way through my window blinds this Sunday, I rose from my slumber with a new sense of excitement for the season ahead, and gathering together some long since aired padded winter clothing, I headed out with my partner to enjoy the arrival of Autumn.

Our original intention was to photograph the typical hallmarks of the season: conkers, ruby-coloured leaves and mushrooms peaking up around the damp bases of ancient trees, but perhaps because of the warmer-than-average September, or maybe because it is still early days in the autumn calendar, we found such seasonal staples to be lacking. However, what we did find, upon walking in the densely verdant landscape of South London’s Wandsworth Park, was a waterway of small ponds and larger lakes come alive with the auburn light and the rich sunny hues of autumn. While I have seen this park in every season, there was something about the interplay of autumn light, with the turning colour of the leaves and the elegant auburns and greens of the mallard ducks gliding on the surface of the water that made the entire scene a treat for the eyes.

So rather than giving you a photographic panoply of autumn berries, nuts and other forest favourites, my homage to autumn’s ascendancy is an album focusing on the stunning sparkling reflections formulated in the softly-lit waters of Wandsworth Park. Autumn in England is not known to be the most clement of seasons, but on a day like this, it can make for one of the most beautiful times of all the year.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Oct 7

The Daily Norm Photo of the Week: Sunrise above the Sleepers

Waking up on a weekday in order to go to work is simply dismal at this time of the year. As the season descends into autumn and then winter, and the days get shorter and shorter as they go on, the forceful ringing of an alarm clock before the skies are yet light seems like the most unnatural and cruel start to a day imaginable. Why can’t humans be as sensible as animals, curling up in their warm beds until at least the sun is out, and the start of our day coincides with the awakening of nature around us? Better still, can’t we just hibernate now until the cold dark times of winter are over? Nonetheless, despite this gloom, if you’re lucky with timing, there is one thing about the autumn that makes waking up before sunrise a real treat for the eyes – the skies. Just as the sun is about to rise (and when, of course, the sky is clear of clouds – not exactly easy in England) autumn’s gift is a sunrise so visually enriching that it could be mistaken for a neon light show out of an 80s roller disco. Shot through the sky, stripes of richly fluorescent orange slice through a peachy soft sky, while above, the fading exit of the night sky bleeds from dark blue, to lightening blue, through to a subtle shade of fragrant purple.

This week’s Daily Norm Photo of the Week shows one such sunrise, when the sun has just burst above the horizon and transformed the skies around it into a cocktail of colour explosions. I love how the urban silhouette in front of it responds with such fervour in a sharp relief of black, while reminding us that at this time of the sun’s early entrance, beneath the eaves and roofs of these houses, workers remain snuggled up in bed, fighting the eager alarm clock whose shrill warning reminds the snoozing sleeper that it is time to face the cold, long, busy day ahead.

Oct 2

The Daily Norm Photo of the Week: Il Grillo Parlante

Whenever The Daily Norm focuses in on a particular photo, that photo is more often than not a nature shot. For there is nothing quite so beautifully complex as the work of mother nature, especially the little beasties that she has gathered around the earth. And this week’s offering is no exception, for following hot on the heels of my Tuscany exposé is a spectacular little resident of the region who we happened to meet one sunny morning over coffee in the town of Campiglia Marittima. Meet Jiminy Cricket himself, a right royal example of this bandy legged wonder, sat aloofly in a lush leafy plant neighbouring our table as we sat nonchalantly sipping cappuccino in the sun.

With his large oval eyes casting side glances at the viewer, and dappled wings whose complex pattern looks like a cracked ceramic tile or a Roman mosaic, this insect is truly a beauty, and I was delighted to achieve this closeup without the said spectacle jumping swiftly out of sight. But I also love other aspects of the photo too, such as the soft defocus of the cobweb in the immediate foreground which has the appearance of rainbow electrics shooting through the air.

It seems appropriate that this marvellous cricket should have been found in amongst the verdant landscape of Italy, for Jiminy Cricket himself, perhaps the most famous cricket of them all and illustrated character of Disney’s Pinocchio was of course based on a character of Italian author Carlo Collodi‘s original Pinocchio tales, a character whose simple name, The Talking Cricket (Il Grillo Parlanate) takes the name of this post.

Sep 26

Sunset on Tuscany

Just as this week of Tuscany posts began with an essay on a sensational sunny morning, when the sun was slowly rising over the calmest of seas, so now it ends with the most sumptuous of sunsets, as that round ball of fire on which we are all so inherently reliant made its 180 degree course through our northern hemisphere before dropping gracefully beyond the reach of the equator to pursue a further path on the other side of the world.

As the Tuscan coastline universally faces west, wherever you are on that beautiful stretch of pine tree lined coast, you are guaranteed to be treated to the most stunning of sunsets, whatever the time of the year. Over just a short weekend in Tuscany, we witnessed three incredible shows, and with each the panoply of colours striding through the sky seemed to increase. From a lemon yellow deepening through to mango, when the sun eventually plunged beneath the horizon, the sky was shot with the most exquisite shades of rose and raspberry ripple so that, by the time night descended, the sky had danced its way through a cabaret of colours, inspiring fruit filled cocktails and artists aplenty in its wake.

But just as the sun had to set, a little earlier each day, so too did the time have to set on our little trip to Tuscany. For the nature of a weekend is the inevitable onset of work the following Monday, and with this damned thought in mind, we made our long way back, besides a fading purple sky, along the dark winding road to Pisa.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Sep 25

Tuscan Town Triple: Numero Tre – Monteverdi and the Vineyards of Donoratico

Monteverdi Marittimo is, on the map at least, mere kilometres from the little Tuscan Town of Castagneto where we journeyed on yesterday’s Daily Norm. But as the name suggests, Monteverdi rests atop a very green mountain, and the map does little to betray the extensively meandering length of road which takes a good half an hour to wind round and round the ascent of that mountain to reach the town on the top. As you do so, it is interesting how the air becomes yet clearer still, and the surroundings greener and more forested than ever – this is after all the terrain of the wild boar and the various huntsmen who annually go in their pursuit.

Upon our eventual arrival in this tiny town, the spirit and feel of the hunt was very much in the air. The town has an altogether more “gamey” feel to it. Take away the sun and you might have been in Scotland, its old stone cottages and streets looking somewhat hardened by the elements. In fact I half expected to find stags heads and hunting rifles at every turn. Instead I found a atypical Tuscan town metamorphosed into an altogether more robust version of its normal romanticised cliche.

Here the green shutters of the lower towns had been painted a muddy shade of brown; from here the views of the surrounding Tuscan countryside were so much lower down in altitude that they had become misty with distance. But despite the very beautiful results of old town against winning views, the town lacked soul. It’s streets were empty – we didn’t see a soul – almost as though the whole population had heard of an oncoming disaster, something of which we remained blissfully unaware, that is at least until we had lunch at the Trattoria del Pettirosso whereupon a disaster really did unfold – a gastronomic catastrophe of chewy badly cut ill cooked steak tagliata and a vino rosso so foully fizzy that the thousands of local wine growers around the town must have had a moments reflex of stomach-churned disgust.

Still, there was no denying the abundance of verdant countryside between Monteverdi and the sea, and as we descended back to ground level, we had the opportunity to wander amongst olive groves and vineyards full of the plumpest sweet grapes, taking the opportunity to sneakily taste one or two – for any day now these will be picked and harvested to make their way into a hopefully far superior wine than the horror which had ensued at lunch.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Sep 24

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Tuscan Town Triple: Numero Due – Castagneto Carducci

Castagneto Carducci has a grand ring to it, like an aristocratic stronghold or a line of infamous popes. It is in fact quite the opposite of grand – a tiny hill top town clustered in the heart of wine-producing Italy so small that cars are band from its centre, and it comprises only a handful of small winding streets. Happily for me, this delightful little town is but minutes from my partner’s family home, a more than pleasant drive meandering through vineyards and fields packed with ripely fruited olive trees.

Up in Castagneto it’s like another world. Car-free, worry-free, the visitor to this little Tuscan gem can wander uninhibited in and out of little shops selling the best local produce, wines, oils, herbs and soaps before stopping in one of the charming little cafes for an aperol spritz or a morning prosecco. Having had a heavy night sampling only the best of the local Bolgheri vino rosso, we opted for coffees before indulging in the photography which this little charismatic enclave begs for, taking in the little side streets populated by sun-loving cats and chatting locals all set against a backdrop of sunny pastel houses and more of those iconic Mediterranean window shutters. The results of those amblings are the harvest festival of photos shown on today’s Daily Norm.

But for those left salivating at this dip into the Elysium of Tuscany’s fields, your wait for the next picture-perfect treat will be brief: return to The Daily Norm tomorrow for numero tre in the Tuscan Town Triple. In the meantime here’s a gallery of what Castagneto does best.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Sep 23

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Tuscan Town Triple: Numero Uno – Campiglia Marittima

One mention of Tuscany brings to mind meandering cypress-fringed roads winding their way through fields of sunflowers and olive trees; it is synonymous with old shuttered farm houses and vineyards carefully tendered in perfectly straight rows; and it recalls the typical Tuscan village, all built from crumbling beige stone, with a cosy central piazza and at least one church and campanile ringing out the hour. And these visions of a bucolic paradise are not merely the things of dreams. On my recent weekend in Tuscany, I was lucky enough to ride along the meandering cypress-lined roads, walk amongst vineyards and visit not one, not two, but three stunning little Tuscan towns, all three of which demand a photo essay all of their own.

In this first, I introduce you to Campiglia Marittima, a hill top citadel just inland from San Vincenzo on the Tuscan coast, benefitting with views not just of wide Tuscan planes, but also of the coast towards Piombino and beyond the island of Elba.

This was my first trip to the town, and in it I found the very typique of a Tuscan settlement. Little squares on whose benches the elderly locals lingered chatting in the shadows; consistently charming houses, all built with stone and with windows shuttered in either green or blue, small little cafes creating a bustle in the central square, gently undulating cobbled streets and stairways leading up and down the steep hillsides on which the town is clustered. For photography the town was a gem of a model. Each street offered a multiple overlap of charming features – a distant hillside, an iron street lamp in front; either side quaint window shutters and in the foreground plants and multicoloured flowers grown in every shape and size of pan, can or pot.

Campiglia Marittima is the very epitome of Tuscan charm, but in the great chocolate box of Tuscany’s multiple offerings, this was a sweet caramel delight in a box of plenty. Come back tomorrow for another of Tuscany’s idylls.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.