Long days and late sunsets are a perk of life in Cape Town in the summer. And with the sun setting on the other side of the mountain, the silhouette of Lion's Head continues to glow until after even the whole of the city bowl is bathed in purple nightfall.
And while I'm up there, I'll include this view of Lion's Head, taken near the top. It's a strange view of the mountain, the rocky head almost slouching as it looks down over the Atlantic. When's it's been a rough hike, this is the point on the trail where I generally feel rather sick; I just have to remind myself that I'm almost there, and that the view of the whole city below really makes it worth getting to the top.
I know I rather favour views of Lion's Head, but Cape Town's more iconic Table Mountain does offer its share of incredible views as well. This one on the intersection of Annandale and Upper Orange is one of my favourites, for the bizarre contrast it offers; a contrast that to me says so much about Cape Town. The stately Presbyterian church, looking like a scene out of an English hamlet, and behind it Table Mountain, clouds unfurling over it like a primeval landscape from the 'Lost World'.
While looking through images of National Parks for several of last week’s entries, I came across these nearly identical images of blesbok from Mlilwane National Park in Swaziland. I hadn’t planned to take such similar images at the time, but somehow nearly everything matched up. The two shots were taken almost exactly six months apart—the first in the dry winter month of July, the second in rainy steamy December.
My photography is certainly not of a level that most of my shots are a success—I generally take at least a dozen pictures of a single subject, then later edit and select the decent one or two. Often, many of my photographs come out very badly—they might be blurry, poorly framed, lacking a subject, or looking like I photographed them while dropping the camera. Yet every now and then, one of these ‘bad photographs,’ ends up being appealing to me in some way. While it may not get anything right photographically, it still manages to communicate something about the subject—sometimes even better than a good photograph can.
One of the most distinctive features of the Los Angeles landscape is the stately carwash. Its sweeping block-long form sums up so much about Southern California- from the glamour of its oversized Spanish Mission style lanterns, to the angular Googie signage that seems so evocative of a post-war enthusiasm for the freedom of owning a private vehicle.
When I tell people that I lived in LA, they frequently show no hesitation in informng me how much they hate the city. Perhaps they expect that I'll feel the same because it isn't my place of origin or because I chose to leave, or maybe they don't care what I think about it, but it always seems a little tacky to me. I love LA, so I have to admit I do feel a little offended when I hear that. I certainly don't expect everyone to like Los Angeles: I know of course that tastes and preferences vary, and that people have legitimate reasons for disliking LA. But it often seems that people simply repeat the sentiment without good reason, as if to dislike 'Hollywood' is a rejection of the qualities associated with it. And those qualities attached to LA, that it's vacuous, unintellectual, and shallow, strike me as a hollow cliche.
I find LA to be a vibrant, exciting city; it's a centre for progressive art and design, and a cosmopolitan mingling of diverse cultures. Beyond that- and this is where many disagree with me- I think that it's simply a beautiful city to look at. Then again, I'm not much helping that cause. Exactly one year ago, I started this blog with my first photographic entry, a piece about photographing Hollywood, which was written in and about Los Angeles. However, in the year that's followed, I've only written six more entries devoted entirely to the city. I have hundreds of photographs of LA, but I've probably published less than thirty of them on Primitive Culture. So I'm starting a new series: L.A.ndscapes. I'll be combining urban photographs with stories, pieces of history, or tips for traveling in the city of angels. I don't expect to change anyones mind about Los Angles- but I hope to at least show why I love it.
