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| The pre-sunset sky over St. Nicholas Church and Zentrum - after a huge rainstorm. |
leipzig: after the storm
happy holidays!
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| Happy Holidays, Marry Christmas to everyone. I wanted to wish everyone the best in 2011 and thank those who are encouraging my photography, especially Anna! White Eagle with golden crown is the national emblem in Poland. This vintage, hand-made ornament takes the honorable place on our Christmas tree. |
leipzig: []
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| One of many examples of top quality modern architecture in Leipzig. Someone told me once that Leipzig is always dotted with construction cranes, unlike in Poland, vast majority of newly built offices are top-notch! This one here is somewhat connected to the University, though I don't know it's function. |
leipzig: freiheit at sunset
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| Sunset with the "Freiheit" (freedom) mural on the side of Marriott Hotel in Downtown Leipzig. |
leipzig: the tower
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| This transparent observation tower stands on the south side of Cospudener See lake in Leipzig. Wouldn't recommend climbing it to a person that's scared of heights! Although it gives a nice view of the lake and distant downtown Leipzig. |
leipzig: the supreme court
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| The building for the Supreme Court in Leipzig is situated on Simsonplatz. |
leipzig: fahrrad garage
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| That's the before mentioned university bicycle parking garage. I don't know how many bikes it hoses but there always were free parking spots. Now, that's planning ahead. Another thumbs up, Germans! |
leipzig: uni
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| That is one of the main Leipzig University buildings: Mensa am Park. It houses a large cafeteria, lecture halls, a library and, for the most part, a huge underground bicycle parking garage. Brilliant: you roll down to the garage and simply walk up the stairs inside the building. The skyscraper in the background is the MDR tower, providing a nice 360-degree view of downtown Leipzig. |
leipzig: cospudener see
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| Cospudener See is an artificial lake in southern Leipzig. Accesible by public transit (bus, tram and S-Bahn), car or bike. From where I used to live it was a 5 - minute drive or a 10 - minute bike ride through the forest. Quite an incredible sight, that forest route, since apparently in the summer the vast majority of the people commute there by bicycles. Wide paths in the woods then make bicycle highways with an incredible amount of cyclists. |
leipzig: volkszeitung
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| That's the title of the main local newspaper, Leipziger Volkszeitung. This structure is a part of their new offices. The way it's symmetrical and asymmetrical at the same time really struck me! |
leipzig: mitte
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| Downtown Leipzig. Home to my former school, Leipzig University, Museum of Modern Art, Zeitgeschichtliches Forum (Museum of Contemporary German History, focusing on the GDR history especially) and multiple shopping malls and other institutions. Here, a quiet back street. |
leipzig: neue messe
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| The new Leipzig Trade Fair. Here, a work of polish artist, Stanisław Dróżdż, Odtąd, Dotąd |
leipzig: alte messe
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| I.E. Old Fair. This particular building is the former Soviet Pavilion. Although new investments, such as the National Library or Leipzig University buildings, arise around the Old Fair area, the quarter itself is still underdeveloped. Some buildings are abandoned, some house retail businesses. Also there is a spot where guys from Leipzig Bike Polo meet up Friday nights to play pick-up games and have beers. |
leipzig: postamt
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| Part of the facade of the main post office building in LE. Built in '64 on Augustusplatz, one of the main public plazas in Leipzig, it represents East German Modernism. Unfortunately with a little respect for the architecture of this era, now it's run down and decaying. |
leipzig: future or past?
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| This building, or should I say it's remains stood on the verge of downtown Leipzig. It used to be a shopping center and was eventually demolished in 2010. I took this picture before the demolition but after the removal of aluminum panels that covered the facade for the last couple of decades. The construction looked like an adopted old building; the exposed core made impression of a structure out of a science-fiction movie. The raw photograph was treated with 30% transparent mask of a HDR image. |
leipzig: sealed off
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| Many buildings in the capital of Saxony (especially office or university) have exterior blinds in the windows to seal off the afternoon sun. Strangely enough, since the city is within the Temperate Climate zone. It's indeed a weird view; brings to one's mind thoughts of a post apocalyptic city out of some movie... |
leipzig: mehr lesen wissen konnen
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| A vintage neon, literally it means you can know more by reading more, correct me if I'm wrong, my Deutsch needs Polishing. Being a former biggest city of East Germany (not counting Berlin), Leipzig housed some government institutions. This building might had been serving as a ministry of education of some sort. |
leipzig: greenhouses
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| I spent four months in Leipzig, Germany this year. With these few pictures I start a short series of images of this collage town. One of the first things that struck me in Leipzig was the amount of greenhouse-like courtyards and patios. Here are a few; above, an old gas works, now a public space and a museum. |
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| One of many in-block passages that are covered with glass roofs (downtown). |
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| The entrance hall at one of the biggest buildings of Leipzig University. |
krakow: no polo
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| Krml and John, Krakow's bike polo players running away from a heavy rainstorm. I came across this picture browsing through some old polo shots as right now I'm injured and can't play. It was teken back in March, I believe. If you wanna learn more on bike polo go to The League of Bike Polo or Fixed Gear Krakow, a blog I run. |
berlin: the dome
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| Exactly one year ago I visited Berlin briefly for the first time. Although it was raining three days straight I had a great time. Berlin indeed is a fun town! I hope to visit again soon! Here: Reichstag's modern observation dome. |
nyc: new museum
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| I've been so busy wrapping up my studies in Germany (pictures will be coming up soon!) that I haven't been able to get myself to post for exactly a month. Nearing the end of this New York series, I choose a detail of the building of the New Museum. Designed by two Japanese architects, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, it stands out in a gritty, run down neighborhood of Bowery in Manhattan and hosts modern art galleries as well as a cultural center. |
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nyc: 1585 b'way
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| More of the last year's improvements of Broadway, in the vicinity of Times Square. I liked the green, dotted pavement especially! |
nyc: b'way in soho
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| In SoHo is my favorite part of Broadway. Not only the architecture is more interesting than, say, in Midtown, but also, It's narrower, thus more human, I should say. It's the only part of Broadway where it has a "human" size. |
nyc: soho
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| South of Houston (street.) That's what the abbreviation "SoHo" stands for. What used to be one of manufacturing quarters of Manhattan is now a mekka for shoppers seeking high end designer clothes and such. Still though you can feel the old spirit of the neighborhood, how it used to be back in the 70s and 80s when the art scene was going on here. |
nyc: pershing square
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| Pershing Square is a section of Park Avenue South, where part of Park goes onto a ramp around the Grand Central Station. |
nyc: the spectacle of lights
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| As the flooding in Poland continues (check out this amazing picture taken by a Krakow photographer G.Chorus), I continue to post rainy shots from my last visit in New York. Times Square is one of the places new yorkers hate the most, but nobody doubts the wonderful spectacle of lights, especially on the late, rainy afternoon. Also, for a year now parts of Broadway at Times Square and Herald Square have been turned into pedestrian plazas with planers, tables and chairs. Maybe new yorkers will eventually get to like Times Square? |
nyc: rainy afternoons
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| New York is the only place on earth I don't mind the bad weather at all, even if it's raining for a long time. That was somewhere in the west 40s. Every single empty lot in Manhattan is turned into a permanent/temporary parking lot. The prices of parking are ridiculously high but people still do drive. Hopefully, a congestion charge of some sort will be introduced soon. The city was planning on charging people driving into Manhattan from Long Island (now the East River bridges are free of charge.) |
nyc: c rock
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| "C" Rock is a gigantic "C" painted on the rock by the Harlem River, in front of one of Columbia University residence halls. The graffiti, painted and maintained by the Columbia students is perfectly visible from the Circle Line ships. It took years to finish it up since the NYPD was arresting the students painting it until they finally gave up and let the students finish. The Bronx, NYC |
nyc: lex
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| This part of Lexington avenue in New York really has some decent Art Deco architecture. Corner of Lex and East 42nd, just across the street from the Chrysler Building. |
nyc: L.E.S.
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| Lower East Side. One of the most important neighborhoods in New York historically, now up and coming with a lot of new hip businesses and the art folk moving down here. Corner of Eldridge and Stanton, by the Trackstar Bike Couriers. |
nyc: this is the end
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| Actually, this is the beginning of my other series of New York. Hopefully I won't be crazy busy as recently. This was somewhere in the Alphabet City, East Village, Manhattan. |
the ceiling
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| There are so many details in the St. Mary's Church in Krakow that are worth photographing! Especially that ceiling. You can just look up and... keep looking up until your neck hurts. That's how involving and beautiful it is! |
more of st. mary's
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| As you can see, there are still a couple more pictures from St. Mary's church in Krakow I still want to share here. |
sacristy
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| The entrance to the Sacristy at the St. Mary's Church in Krakow. A friend of mine who is a tour guide said it's as beautiful as the church itself, unfortunately not open to the public though. |
back to krakow
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| Back to Krakow. This is a detail of the wooden preacher's pulpit in Krakow's St. Mary's Church. Those interiors are amazing so keep checking the blog daily as I'm going to post more of pictures from there soon! |
grzybowska, warsaw
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| Grzybowska is one of my favorite streets in downtown Warsaw. This particular building is a residential condo. I like how they divided the structure into "segments" and I also appreciate the wood on the facade. There are nice modern buildings in Poland! |
OSIR cycle culture cafe, warsaw
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| OSIR cycle culture cafe is a coffee shop and a bar I came across in Warsaw last week. They have really good espressos and pretty nice bicycle events sometimes. It's decorated with designer fixed gear bikes and locally made track frames for sale. Check out their blog at: osir-cafe.blogspot.com. |
happy women's day!
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| Last week I visited Warsaw for two days and came across this stencil once again. The picture is from 2008 though, since on Friday it was too dark to shoot. The stencil says More respect for women or I'll kill the bitch! :) Happy Women's Day! |
krakow: the university's medieval space ship
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| That is a fun shot of the oldest University building! We tried to find a proper name, but the only one that we came up with was simply a bay window. Apparently English doesn't have all the words to describe medieval architecture. Anyway, I was so amazed when I saw this bay window! Although I saw it hundreds of times before, I nevere thought of it as a space ship! And a space ship is what it looked like for me for a second! It's so funny how much medieval architecture has so many connections to 20th century sci-fi movies! I'm in Warsaw at the moment, hopefully going to upload some pictures from here soon. |
krakow: the university #2
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| More of the oldest University building in Krakow. Check out the full description in the previous post. That old auditorium is now used only for representative purposes. I took that picture just playing with the depth of field of my 50mm lens. Although I am able to shoot at 50mm with my "main" lens, it's so much more fun, when I'm forced to use 50mm, so to speak. I find photography more rewarding when I have to find a proper distance and composition, not being able to manipulate with zoom. |
krakow: the university
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This university building is from 1400! Seriously! It's great to see how they used to practice sciences and arts over six hundred years ago. Makes me a little ashamed I'm not taking full advantage of studying in 21st century. The building is called Collegium Maius and you can read more on it at it's wikipedia page. Here, a shot of the oldest library and study room. |
st. peter and paul's
A little touristy but what the hell! I was a tourist in Krakow for two days straight and I don't regret it! Like I said before, It's so good to rediscover the places you think you know so well. |
rediscovering krakow
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london: central zone
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| The temperature here in Krakow is finally back to normal (below freezing at night, warmer daytime.) Meanwhile, I'm trying to advocate for sustainable transportation in the City. There is a discussion these days in Krakow, whether to introduce a fee for driving into the city. I hope that we can learn from good examples other cities, such as London set. Here, London's Central Zone markings on Kensington High Street. Since its introduction in 2003, London's Congestion Charge has improved traffic safety, transit efficiency and resulted in decrease in pollution. |
siberia in krakow
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| Now that the temperature hits zero Fahrenheit every night (!), the City has put those coal heaters, just like they used to almost thirty years ago, during the "state of war" introduced by the communist government to calm the political opposition. This winter has been particularly severe, especially for the homeless. Although one may oppose the heaters in terms of the impact on the environment, they work beautifully. |