Unlikely bedfellows
Years apart
The first time I saw the Duomo in Florence my emotions were shocked with an unforeseen awe. I had read about it in Vasari, but these being the days before the internet, I had never seen, even, a picture - and there it was, in all its aggressively munificent marble beauty. It was raining - or maybe I have made that up - it shone for sure - it glistened. Few things since have had this kind of visceral effect upon me. Although, years later I walked the Rotherhithe tunnel under the Thames. You’ve never seen so many broken wing mirrors, shattered, sparkling in automatic headlight beams, nor have you so tacitly experienced our assured destruction by fossil fuels and their conduits. You felt that you shouldn’t be there, that you were breaking some law or undertaking a salacious vice - it induced a deeply guttural pressure of peace in me.
Left: Florence, Italy 2016 Nikon d200
Right: London 2009, Pentax ME Super