* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #822 / Revived #042 on 2024 01 17 *

This is the kind of thing that ordinary mortals don't even notice, but that attracts a photographer's eye.
Simple but effective play with reflections, colours etc.

I really like the geometry (and geography) here, that almost creates a visual puzzle. The actual surroundings look drab and rainy, but we get this see-through view towards a place of warmth and concentration. The light draws us in. The sign top right is also a useful addition: it gives us the essential clue to what that person is doing down there.
A very good street/travel/human interest image.

"The Light Out"
No more darkness, no more night.

I'm afraid I can'(t help you much.
The first one reminds me of the Canadian Maple leaf symbol and the third one some kind of oak with more pointy than rounded leaves, but that's it.
Oddly, I think that the story of mourning and decay that is shouted by the fourth one, is the aspect that attracts me most.

There are many reasons why this image is not supposed to appeal to me: it is incredibly centered, devoid of human presence and in reasonably muted colours. Nothing jumps towards us. And the background looks almost fake (very much out of focus, more than I would naturally expect for a view like this, with those distances and the focal length that I assume was used.

But still it appeals.
There is a certain timelessness about it.

It's like the kind of thing a visitor from outerspace would gaze at in order to understand human life on earth.
Or the set for a new Wes Anderson movie (but that is almost the same as the previous analogy).

This immediately makes me think of the old-fashioned kind of chewing gum machines of my youth, where you put a coin in a slot and turn a lever and it will deliver you a chewing gum ball in the tray.

I love this essay, both the visual part of it and your narrative.
All of it smells like Italy in the best sense of the word/place.
We love it there.
Time seems to have stood still in some areas, and is rushing past visibly in others.
"La passeggiata" is a true gem of Italian culture.
When we first lived in Italy for half a year (in Bologna, in 1990), it was the highlight of the evening, with people from all walks of life and ages, strolling together up and down Via dell'Indipendenza (between the city center and the train station where not so long before, a terrorist assault had happened).
La passeggiata was (back then and for ages before) a way to see and be seen, to socialize, gossip, meet family and friends for not much more than a gelato; also a way for youngsters to get into the whole process of flirting. Part debutantes' ball, part mating dance, part gossip column.
We still see la passeggiata when we visit Italy, but there is a fade-out of the phenomenon.
The younger people don't seem to participate as much anymore, and when they do, it is with their phone in hand and that phone is a constant distraction.
I am sounding really old now.

I really like this for reasons I cannot really articulate.
It is like we are looking a a few frames from a cinema movie, that have been cut out of the final edit of the movie and have landed in a puddle on the editing room floor. And I like the fantasies I can hook onto that.

I second these opinions, and, yes, it does have certain Turner feel to it.

pete

I think Minnie nailed it, and I like Mike‘s reference to tennis players!
Window decorations are supposed to present the products in a lifelike way, and here it is showing more complicated aspects of life than the decorators bargained for.

Pete

All of the above, plus the fact that the wide-angle distortion of the square pool creates interesting leading lines in the shape of an arrowhead, and, even though it is pointing in exactly the wrong direction, it gathers our attention and draws it into the image.

Pete

Yes, and I particularly like the last one, with its advanced but delicately formed decay.

Pete