Thirsty work

It's half term in The Liberties, which means Missy is off for the week and - hurrah! - no school runs to be done.  Replaced by runs to and from town, to and from cinema, to and from friends' houses.  Not sure which is preferable, mind you, but it makes a change.

This print is the last one from the batch of Italian lith prints I did the other day.  We were walking aimlessly around Sorrento in the early evening and I liked the shadows thrown up by the sun hitting this old pump.  The bit of graffiti on the wall didn't do any harm either, on what was otherwise a fairly blank canvas.  Anyway, as I pointed the camera to compose I became aware of a gentleman waiting for me finish.  I lowered the camera, smiled and motioned for him to go ahead.  His dog clearly knew the trick and I snapped them up as it quenched its thirst:

Early evening in Sorrento, 2018.  Lith print.

Water fountain

In the back streets of Sorrento there are a million cafes and boutiques all vying for your Euros.  But inbetween the stores there are more interesting things to be found:

Marble fountain, Sorrento.  Foma fibre paper, lith 

I'm not sure this marble fountain is a thing of beauty, mind - those fish-like things aren't exactly the most welcoming of critters.  But as a small example of Italian craftsmanship it ain't bad - and I like the fact that it's almost hidden (as much as you can hide such a thing) between the clothes rails and the outlets offering day trips to Capri.

Spice shop

I don't know about you but when in holiday mode I'm focussed more on my loved ones than on a camera but I always feel guilty if I don't take a few snaps when I’m away somewhere new. I'd spied this particular scene a few nights earlier (it was near our favourite restaurant in Sorrento) and on our last night I excused myself for a few minutes and ventured forth to snap something up:

Spice seller's shop, Sorrento, August 2018

Lost in the shadows there's a little girl sitting the doorway down the alley but it was the spice seller's front-of-house that caught my eye.  9.5"x12" print on Foma paper, lith developer.

Liam

Another shot taken in The Red Lion, Lincoln Park, Illinois - the favoured watering-hole of DePaul University's Philosophy Department.  This is Liam - a good Dublin man who has made his home in Chicago and teaches all sorts of interesting stuff to DePaul students.  At the start of the evening Liam sounded like an American, but after talking to me (and The Brother) for a few hours he was pure Dublin again.  Order was restored and all was well with the world again :)

Liam in The Red Lion, Lincoln Park, IL

Another one on Foma paper via lith developer, if you care about such things. And yes I know Liam's face is not in focus - I seemed to have nailed his pint glass, though! Ah sure it adds to the mystery of the man, eh?

Opera Society, Italian style

As we wandered aimlessly around the back streets of Sorrento we happened upon the place you see in the print below.  A gated courtyard in very grand style, the plaque on the wall indicated an Operatic Society - perhaps Opera lovers, or singers/actors?

Operatic Society, Sorrento

Whatever it was, I got the impression that it wasn't the sort of place tourists would be welcome to just wander into, so I did the decent thing and moved on.  Not before getting a couple of shots in, though :)  Foma paper, lith.

Doing what they do best

This is Sean and Michael - two of The Brother's colleagues.  Doing what they do best - which, being Philosophy Professors, is thinking, questioning, engaging in discourse, and, ahem, socialising.  Particularly socialising.

Sean and Michael, 2018.  Foma paper, lith developer.

This was a tough one to print.  My own fault, since it was way underexposed in the Hasselblad.  I had no meter with me so it was a bit of a guess - and a poor one at that.  My first print was distinctly lacking in anything and the second not much better.  I turned to lith for salvation and wasn't disappointed.  It was HP5+ rated at either 800 or 1600 and developed in RO9.  Almost full frame and the grain is nicely enhanced by the lith developer.  I was well pleased with the result.

Oak Park, Illinois

A bit more of the story of Oak Park, just west of Chicago.  It's a very affluent suburb - there are some pretty, large and expensive private houses there - and not just those designed by the famous Frank Lloyd Wright.  Property taxes are stratospheric by UK standards, even for modest properties like my brother's and most of those taxes appear go to the single, large (very) local high school - Oak Park and River Forest, or OPRF as it is known.  Ernest Hemingway went to OPRF - although my brother's daughters took great delight in telling me only for one year and he hated it, apparently.  From the amount of property taxes that goes to OPRF I was slightly disappointed when I learnt the corridors aren't paved with gold. Mind you, there was a proposal a few years ago to spend more than $35m tearing down an existing building and constructing a new swimming pool/aquatics centre.  Yes, you read correctly - $35m on a swimming pool, for a high school.  I think the Trustees were hoping to sell various bonds to fund the scheme and while I'm all for thinking big the whole thing seemed a bit unrealistic to me.  I think the plans have been shelved, indefinitely.

A print for you:

On Lake Street, Oak Park, Illinois

This was shot the same day as the one the other day.  The cinema on Lake St (the main drag) looks great - very Art Deco. It was a busy Friday afternoon and I had to stand a serious amount of time to get a break in the traffic and then only just made it, as you can see.  This one's on Foma 131 paper, by the way, via Moersch Easylith developer.  Perfect for anything with stone/brickwork in it.

Oak Park is a strange mix of nothing-too-special modern and very-special historic.  The Unity Temple and buildings like the cinema above stand out in my mind as 'buildings of interest'.  As do the historic Frank Lloyd Wright houses - if you are ever there, take one of the walking tours around that district, they're very informative and it's a great way to spend a few hours.  The new library, next to Scofield Park where open air concerts are held during summer, is an impressive modern, glass-fronted building but very soon you are into the more usual mix of boutique shops, cafes and stores like...you've guessed it...Whole Foods.  Or Whole Pay Check as the joke goes.

While Oak Park and neighbouring River Forest are very genteel places to be, to the East of OP we have the district of Austin.  Austin is not wealthy.  In fact, Austin is on the other side of the spectrum entirely.  A few years ago it acquired the label of Chicago's deadliest neighbourhood, with more homocides than even places like Englewood on the notorious South Side.  Lake Street (above) extends into Austin and you don't have to drive too far to see a heck of a difference in terms of the shops, bistros, cafes etc...not to mention the various 'types' you see walking about, or just standing around.   You need to keep your wits about you wherever you go, even downtown Oak Park.  The day of the pic above my daughter and I were strolling around, looking like tourists (hard not to) and feeling a little like fish out of water.  Missy got heckled at least once as we passed a group waiting for a public bus...'Sup, baby' was said so low I didn't even catch it, but she did.  A little creepy, given her age (15) and the age of the commenter (closer to my age than hers).  Still, as I told her over a hot tea, with looks like hers she'll have to learn how to deal with a lot worse than that in the years to come...