Stairway to Catalan Art Nouveau

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If you look up under "palau" or "modernisme" blogger labels at the bottom of this post you will find information about famous Barcelona's Concert Hall i.e Palau de la Musica Catalana. You can find stunning samples of Catalan Art Nouveau or Modernisme in this building although you are not allowed to take pictures and show your friends. Maybe that's why my picture got a little blurry and I had to reinvent it a little bit to make worth (is it?).

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Defying Gravity on a BMX

I wish I had more time to post-process this image. I dismissed the original soft colors and decided to work with tritones, an orange/gray/black combination in fact, using the BW Workflow Pro plugin by Fred Miranda in Photoshop. I would have made it more contrasty but it was late and I could hear my bed calling me from the other room. You know the scene already from a previous post this month so there is no need to resume the BMX topic. In this one I liked the look of those kids on the right, with that mixture of desdainful look and secret admiration towards the skillful fellow so I moved the main subject further to the left on purpose.

Rider Girl in Barcelona

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She looks like a model but this was totally improvised. I was having dinner at Escriba's, one of my favorite Barcelona restaurants, in the terrace just in front of the beach and there she was with her slim figure and biting her tongue in the afternoon sun. The shot was not that bad but it had some golden counter light which made it right for a black and white image so I post-processed it with Photoshop CS2.

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Domino Tiles: Double-6 or Double-9 Set

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Domino pieces, dominoes or tiles can be part of different sets being the most common the double-6, the double-9, the double-12 or even the double-15 sets. They are all named after the number of pips on the face of the highest tile. Hey, don't worry I am not into the games biz, maybe I should! My point is, now that I chose black and white detail, that in Barcelona as in many parts of the country is quite common to see people, mainly old people, playing dominoes in the bar (not downtown of course). It has been a traditional game here and they always use a double-6 set so I thought they would find this picture interesting and weird. In Latin America, especifically in the Caribbean. dominoes is considered the national game (I remember players shouting and sitting on the porch drinking beers or rum till late at night during a visit to Cuba where I bought this set) and they use double-9. Who would say that of a game invented in China as far back as the 12th century!.

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Nativity Portal at Sagrada Familia: Three Wise Men

Gold, Incense and Myrrh in the Hands of Gaudi's Three Wise Men. 

A magic moment immortalized by the craftsmanship of this master of architecture. Notice how the figures seem to be carved out of the very stone and the capricious pleiade of ribbon-like protuberances or adornments on the cathedral's walls. 

The Nativity Façade or Nativity Portal has been covered in previous posts, so feel free to browse or search for Sagrada Familia or Gaudi in my photoblog. I have used Photoshop in this picture, specifically Fred Miranda's fantastic BW Workflow Pro plugin.

Paper Sculpture on Subway Vent at Paseo de Gracia

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Walking along Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona I discovered this man reading and totally unaware of the marvelous paper sculpture billowing over a subway vent just like Marilyn's skirt in Seven Year Itch. The artist, roll in hand, smiles with complicity.

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Maremagnum Walk: An Old Canvas

Resize and check in plain BW or aplying Duetone effect. Besides the post processing what I really like is the classic style of the man on the right and the perspective given by the planks on the floor and the columns. That in the background is a cable car tower. In case you don't know, Maremagnum is a big leisure and commercial area where you can find the Imax cinema, the Aquarium and a big shopping center (bought by Corio, a Dutch property group who paid 122 million euros). There was a previous post where I showed Maremagnum shopping center and this walk featuring some artists' beautiful paintings.

Satellite View of Maremagnum on Google Maps

Barcelona Batega Campaign

Barcelona City Council launched a massive marketing campaign recently and the whole city was covered with these flags. The heartbeat logo may be useful for whatever plans L'Ajuntament schemes.

 According to many, it is more a corporate logo than a symbol to help conveying an idea: it may be used for sports, the elders, transportation, the disabled, and so on but nobody really knows what the "heartbeat" really means. 

It would be no big deal in the end if they had not spent 1.6 m € in the campaign. I hope at least you enjoyed the beautiful Casa Sayrach, a modernist building with tower back there which appeared also in this previous post.

See Picture of Modernist House with Tower on a Google Earth Map

Modernisme in BW

This is one of the many buildings that represent Catalan modernisme along Diagonal Ave. The picture was taken from the bus. I again used the angle looking for perspective. The shot was made directly in black and white. Diagonal is one of the main streets of Barcelona cutting the metropolitan area into two, the Zona Alta and the lower portion of the city.