Labels

1984 2012 calendar 2013 calendar abstract aesthetics agnostic Alfred Glover Alfred Stieglitz Ansel Adams apollo aquinnah art art form art show artists' circle arts foundation back river barlow beacon street bicycles boston boston marathon bourne brewster brookline budapest cambridge cape cod canal Cape Neddick captain Kidd cat boat cataumet cataumet arts center chapoquoit chilmark Christ lutheran church climate change coolidge corner cotuit center county galway county mayo cranberry Desiree Davila doo lough easter eastham Edward Weston falmouth faust firenze florence freedom Geraldine Mills goethe green line harvard square harvest hen cove Henry Peach Robinson herreshoff highland light iran ireland japan kamaishi Kesennuma khorasan kittery point lough mask lough nafooey louisburgh Maine martha's vineyard Mary Colt menemsha minamisanriku mistakes monk's cove monument beach mounting a large print nauset light beach Ned Manter new bedford newcomb hollow newport Newtown nobska north falmouth nubble ofunato old silver beach orleans pamet river parker's boatyard patuisset persian rug philippines photography phusion pictorialism pienza pocasset privacy prometheus provincetown quissett quissett harbor boatyard red bicycle religion rikuzentakata robert manz robert manz studio roonagh Sandwich Shapiro skaket so big squibnocket studio suffering sunrise sunset surf drive thanksgiving the harvest theory truro tuscany umbrella val d'orcia village market vinci war wellfleet west falmouth west tisbury woods hole yamadamachi York
also visit my web site at www.robertmanz.net


.




12.6.06

Been a while

Yes it's been a while. I have been through March on the Cape and back to Budapest for April and May. Went to County Mayo, Ireland in April, and down to Tuscany in May for my annual pilgrimage to Florence. Only this time I decided to see what was the wonderful landscape of Val d'Orcia south of Siena all about. I have seen many beautiful images from here, and beautiful landscapes in "The English Patient" and "Gladiator" (Maximus' home) were set here.

I went, and extended my stay, so that this year's annual trip to Florence was really a trip to the Val d'Orcia. Did get to Florence though, and the highlight there was spending a day standing in the Uffizi arcade with the water color painters and the morocchini selling art prints and knockoff handbags, trying to sell some of my prints. Many compliments, no sales, lots of fun.

The Val d'Orcia was beautiful but gave me a strange feeling of taking pictures of what I have seen pictures of....not a very creative feeling. One day I saw a photo tour bus of photographers working on the famous stand of cypresses at Torrenieri. Their van had pulled off the highway that runs right past the spot, and I hope they did well, but it sort of reinforced the feeling of wondering where was my personal experience of this beautiful landscape.

I think it is emerging as I work through the images. Here are two from the day the sun really came out, the clouds blustered in spectacular fashion and I wandered wonderfully through the lands of San Giovanni d'Asso, as I moved from Montalcino to Pienza, by a very roundabout route.



I call the first one, "To Camprena" because just up the road and to the left is the turn to the monastery of Santa Anna in Camprena, which was the setting of "The English Patient" and some opening scenes of the movie were along this road I am sure.




The second one, "I Cipressini" is a revisit of the abstract look I started working on last winter. I like it, and am applying it to many of the Val d'Orcia pictures.

More images from the Val d'Orcia can be seen here