I have previously mentioned the strong influence my old professor/mentor (tor-mentor), Wiley Sanderson, had on my work. One of the great variety of weekly assignments he gave was to execute a diptych of “related” images. The thing was, you had to show something that went beyond any superficial, obvious connection between the two photographs, and he got to decide what was superficial, as well as what was too much a reach.

So, before you read any farther, study the two photographs and see what connections you can make between them, aside from both being made in Italy.

My argument for them being “related:”

One way to think of photographic composition is that it is simply an arrangement of assorted variations on three basic shapes–circle, triangle, and rectangle. I think the arches, horizontal lines, and rectangles of the two images repeat each other.

Another argument: while different in character, the color palette of both photographs is lush.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index

A couple of years ago Barbara and I decided we wanted to have more physical activity when we travel, so we signed up for a point-to-point self-guided bicycle ride along the Danube, mostly flat terrain, an “easy to moderate” physical ability category, and with e-bikes. The outfitter provides bikes, a GPS nav app, hotels along the route, and moves your luggage every day. Much of that trip was like a fairy tale setting of castles and vineyards, and ended in Vienna.

We recently finished our second of this type trip, riding in the Po River Valley of Italy, from Cremona to Bologna. It was a good trip, like Austria, but the difference in the landscape was dramatic, in reverse, sorta.

Where Austria is like a Disney set, the “Food Valley” of Italy is dominantly agricultural; our ride was mostly through farmland, a more mundane scene, but oh, the food. I “discovered” gramigna with a sausage sauce, and indulged in aged, thick balsamic vinegar drippled on aged Parmesan Reggiano.

As for photographing the “mundane,” I have often considered that my job is to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, or, as Thoreau put it, “The perception of beauty is a moral test.”

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index

I read an essay recently that talked about an American visiting Europe, and frequenting churches and cathedrals, as a secular experience, for the Art and History. I understand that. I do that, and on our recent trip to Italy saw some smaller communities punch above their weight class with their edifice, and the volume and quality of artwork.

Cremona, birthplace of the modern violin and viola, is like that; only a population of about 72,000, but the city can be dated back to B.C.E. times, and was an early northern Roman outpost. The Cathedral on the main plaza is predominantly Romanesque, built in the 1100s, with some later styles showing up in renovations. The interior work is so extensive, and lush, it reminded me of when the Sistine Chapel was cleaned some years ago and the colors were so bright and vibrant, almost cartoonish, people thought they were wrong, but not.

In making my last shot (bottom right) I was mainly using Barbara (small white dot in lower middle) for a scale reference in the vast church setting. I didn’t see the giant tonsured friar, from the back, cowl down, arms raised to greet the crowd in the plaza with a benediction, until editing later.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index.