dancefloorlandmine

For those who like photos of abandoned places, here's a link to the website of Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre ...

marchandmeffre.com/

If it had a tin marked "empty spaces", it would do what it said on it. Themes include courtyards in Budapest, ruins in Detroit, theatres, and Gunkanijima.

From LensCulture.com, here's a series of photographs of cinemas from around the world, some closed and re-used, some still in operation, revealing the range of circumstances in which people come (or came) together to lose themselves in the moving pictures upon the silver, or white, or concrete screen. They range from a white-painted concrete wall at the end of a car park, through the gothic majesty of one in London, now a bingo hall, to the gilt heights of California, by way of Casablanca, Cairo, and Delhi.

Silver Screen, by Stephan Zaubitzer

Back in February, RandomRedhead and I headed out to Polesden Lacey, a National Trust properly in Surrey, on a very soggy day. There was thus very little wandering around the gardens, and quite a lot of sheltering in the rather fine house.

Polesden Lacey was built in the 1820s, and was then remodelled in the 1900s, and was left to the National Trust by Edwardian society hostess par excellence, Mrs Greville, who number King Edward among her regular guests. She was noted for her travels and collections of art, and the house includes a noted collection of Dutch Old Masters and a large number of art pieces collected through her travels across Asia, as well as exhibits related to life at the house.

On this particular visit, there was a specific exhibition of some of the Asian art. I took my camera along ... and ( some photos are behind this cut. )

If you want to see more of the photos, the full gallery is here.

For those who like photos of abandoned places, here are some taken by French photographer Aurélien Villette of Abkhazia, recognised as an independent state by Russia, while almost everyone else considers it still a part of Georgia. The photos show ruined and abandoned buildings, one series focussing on those from the 1950s.

Gallery on LensCulture

(The HDR is a bit over-the-top on some of them for my tastes, mind. One side effect of which is the tendency, as with many HDR images, to appear computer-generated - as if scenes from the game Syberia (for fans of which, it should be pointed out that Syberia III is due out later this year.)

A tale of an award-winning design for a seminary, its construction at the wrong time (from the point of view of changing church priorities), and a proposal for giving the listed shell a new purpose ...

BBC News In Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, valkyriekaren and I went on one of the London Goth Meetup Group's "Goth Walks" - number twelve, a whistle-stop tour around some of London's churches, including mini-lectures on various sites on the route, a tour guide in cassock and biretta (he is actually an Anglican priest, so technically they were his work clothes, although the hat was less usual) and a borrowed key to St Mary Woolnoth, so we could see inside one of Hawksmoor's collection of barmy church designs. It was really rather interesting, and, being me, I took my camera along, resulting in a number of photos. I've split the galleries into two ... the places and the people.

The Places

( Some samples )

The People

( Some samples )

EDIT: In discussion with my parents this weekend, my mother said that I'd probably been to most of those churchyards when a sproglet, as churchyards are often good places to take a child to eat a packed lunch, in between museum visits. My dad then blamed her for my interest in architecture and goths. My brother didn't care for museums and churches ...

The schedule is here, for those that might be interested. 20th June to 20th July, 2008.

Including at least one event including cake. Oh, and another food one.

I'm partly posting this for my own reference, but mostly because it's damn amazing.

Tunnel network with nine temples hidden under house in Italy¹.

They're stunning (in a New Age cultish kind of way). And go to show what a small group of dedicated (if strange) people can do ...

Links from valkyriekaren, here.

¹ Apologies, but the link's to the Daily Mail site.

As mentioned in this post, at lunchtime on Wednesday, cookwitch and I wandered around Devonshire Square, which is between my office and Liverpool Street station. And I took my camera, because it's actually quite picturesque. As a result, here are a couple of photos ...

( Photos behind cut )

Enjoy.