If you wanted to take a break from wandering the streets of Aleppo, in a then peaceful Syria, you could buy tea from this colorful vendor about to set up shop.
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Syrian Tea Time
Tag: photography
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Karstic Trunk
This rock formation in Guilin, southeastern China, reminded me a lot of similar karst caves in Ardèche, in my native France. This one’s name is translated as, Elephant Trunk Hill. Do you see it?
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Goodbye, Hungarian Plague
The twisted Trinity Column in Sopron, northwestern Hungary, is what they call a “plague pillar.” It was erected to give thanks, in the late 17th century, for the end of one of the various recurrences of the Black Death that struck central Europe over the years.
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Unexpectedly Lush
You’d expect the mountainous Epirus region, in northwestern Greece, to be somewhat dry. But the shores of the beautiful lake Pamvotis bring some welcome greenery to the inland.
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A Long Time Since Tipperary
Some photos speak for themselves, others can use a little explaining. Though I took this shot almost 40 years ago, seeing it brought back some vivid memories: For starters, our meal at “Chez Hans,” housed in a former church in County Tipperary in the south of Ireland, was delicious. Despite its Franco-German sounding name — […]
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Leaning Tree Of Denmark
I was in Denmark multiple times, usually on our way to get up north to Sweden and Norway — and never disappointed by the scenery along the way. This shot stands out for the tree leaning over the stream and the vivid green contrasts, though I also did my best to catch the blond cyclist […]
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A Marble Souvenir
To help me remember where I’ve been, along my 60+ years of travels, I have amassed a decent collection of rocks, pebbles, bits of bark — in addition to my 20,000 slides. On the floor of this extraordinary Jain temple in northwestern India, a tiny fragment of marble was waiting for me to pick it […]
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Wouldn’t It Be Nice
The setting and timing of this shot coincide perfectly with the release, half-way around the world, of the seminal surfer album Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. But this summer in Romania was also just a year after the rise of Communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu. We didn’t know it then, but he would become one […]
Ammar Abd Rabbo covered two Assad presidencies from the inside, but his view changed when the Syrian civil war started.
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Olympic Pause
Running, discus throw, long jump, javelin throw, wrestling … After learning all about the Ancient Olympic Games, my wife was enjoying a well-deserved break in the shade, sitting on the ruins of the sanctuary of Olympia where the very first competitions were held.
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Lining Up For Lenin
Even a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, people were lining up in Red Square to get a glimpse of Vladimir Lenin: the Communist leader’s embalmed body remains on display inside the mausoleum.
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Seattle From The Needle
That’s the beauty of shooting with a telelens: From the top of the famous Space Needle, I was able to see details of downtown Seattle — more than a mile away.
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Heroic Minsk
Minsk is a former Hero City: a Soviet title awarded to 12 cities for their “outstanding services to the Motherland” during World War II. The honor came with an obelisk.
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Baltic Leitmotiv
A man busking in the shade, a charming archway … Going through my archives, this picture looked so familiar that I thought I’d already shown it here on Worldcrunch. But I was actually thinking of a different photograph that I took, as luck would have it, during the same tour of the Baltic states, in […]
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Heavily Heavenly
Nirvana comes at a price — and a weight: 5.5 tons of gold, to be more precise, in the case of the Golden Buddha, in Bangkok’s Wat Traimit temple.
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A Quieter Hong Kong
If I asked you to think about Hong Kong, the first images that would come to mind would probably be of rush-hour traffic and vertigo-inducing skyscrapers. But my wife and I were surprised to discover its many bays and soft white sand beaches.
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Cassis Port To Starboard
I’ve taken shots of fishing boats around the world. There were the ever colorful luzzus of Malta and the Phoenician-inspired shapes of the vessels of Nazaré, The traditional fishing boats here in the southern French port of Cassis are called “pointus,” for their pointy shape.
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Germany, Time And Time Again
I live in France near the border with Germany. The proximity has meant that my wife and I have visited Germany 32 times — yes, 32. On these trips, we were able to discover many of the country’s hidden jewels, such as this church, St. Bartholomew’s, on the western shore of Bavaria“s beautiful Königssee lake.
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Postcard From The Ganges
Oh, to watch the sun setting over the Ganges and the ghats of Varanasi …
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Picture Please?
I don’t often photograph people. I prefer to take pictures of places, mostly to remember where I went. But I did click photos of these two Catholic women on the Italian island of Sardinia. They were too photogenic to pass up the opportunity. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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German Folklore In The Flesh
Is that you, Rübezahl? See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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One Tile At A Time
Hard at work under the Tunisian sun, these men were playing their small part in restoring some grandeur to the mosaics of the ancient city of Carthage. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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Sardinia In Sepia
At some point during the late 1970s, I started experimenting with a different brand of film — Agfacolor — over the next decade or so. Good thing I usually stuck with my usual Kodachrome: The tones on this Agfacolor shot of a picnic, on a Sardinian cliff, have not aged well at all … See […]
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Welcome To The Jungle
Not far from Belem, the gateway to the Amazon River, my wife and I (together with our fellow travelers from our organized tour of Brazil) stepped into the rainforest for a short walk — just enough to get a taste of it without having to fight off any anacondas. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s […]
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Norway, No Flash Required
The nice thing about northern Norway in the summer, is that the sun almost never sets. For a photographer, this means excellent lighting throughout the day (and night). Here you can see the colored gákti costumes of the Sámi people seem to pop right out of the picture. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World […]
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Legendary Cathedral
Don’t be fooled by the exuberant Moorish style of the Curtea de Argeș cathedral. The various legends associated with this Romanian Orthodox church tend to be, well, grim. In one tale, the architect — to be able to finish the building — is forced to sacrifice his wife by walling her alive in the cathedral. […]
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Lucky Chaplin
There is a well-known statue of Charlie Chaplin in Vevey, Switzerland, not far from my hometown, where the great American actor lived for 25 years. But what was he doing in Ireland? The quiet village of Waterville, County Kerry, happened to be a favorite vacation spot for the Chaplin family. See more slides from My […]
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My (Great) Grand-Père’s World
My grandson — Worldcrunch’s photo editor and once a chubby baby in my wife’s arms — has just made me a great-grandfather for the fourth time. Bienvenue to the world, Félix! The new dad’s two older sisters, posing in this family portrait in the Austrian Tyrol, have already given me three adorable great-granddaughters. While my […]
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Model Mosque
The Great Mosque of Kairouan, in Tunisia, is considered a model of Islamic art. Its minaret, one of the oldest in the world, served as a template for how many minarets were later built in neighboring North African countries, as well as Spain’s Andalusia region. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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The Blue Carpet Of Cannes
Right now, with the 70th edition of the annual Film Festival underway, those 24 iconic steps of the Grand Auditorium in Cannes are strictly off-limits to the general public. Just a few days before the 60th edition, the carpet was still blue and anyone could proudly mount those steps in whatever off-the-rack outfit they might […]
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Golden Russia
The banks of the Neva River in Saint Petersburg were glistening like gold during this beautiful summer sunset. You can see the extra shine in Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, which may be because its dome is plated with pure gold. See more sides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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Cheeky Shiva
There are Hindu deities everywhere you look along the streets of the Nepalese capital. Here, wood-carved figures of Shiva and Parvati keep an eye on Kathmandu’s Durbar Square. Notice Shiva’s strategically placed left hand. See mores slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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Worth Every Step
Climbing 400 or so stairs is all it took my wife Claudine and I to get to mingle with the gargoyles at the top of the Notre Dame cathedral, and enjoy an breathtaking view of Paris — including Montmartre and the Sacré-Coeur basilica. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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Syrian Water Wheels Keep On Turning
Like much of the rest of the country, Syria’s fourth-largest city, Hama, has been left victim of the brutal civil war repeatedly over the past six years. Still, its most prized antiquities, these big Byzantine-era norias that keep water turning, are still standing. The same, sadly, cannot be said in Palmyra. See more slides from […]
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Head Over Heels
Photography works in mysterious ways. This frozen moment of some graceful Bulgarian folk dancers in Varna somehow looks terribly clumsy. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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The Ghost Of Capitals Past
The city of Fatehpur Sikri, founded in 1569 near Agra, served briefly as the capital of the Mughal Empire before it was abandoned, mainly for water scarcity reasons, only 16 years later. It’s one of India’s best preserved ghost towns. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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Opera House Surprise
In the heart of the rainforest, in a place which for a long time was only accessible by boat, stands the improbable Teatro Amazonas, built during the late 19th-century rubber boom. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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Wisteria Wonder
Wisteria was in full fragrant bloom in the gardens of Suzhou during our spring tour along the country’s east coast. The city’s many waterways has given it the nickname as the “Venice of China.” See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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Hell Of A Good Time
A little monster was having fun in the Mouth of Hell, in Bomarzo’s 16th-century Parco dei Mostri (“Park of the Monsters’). See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
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Slice Of Transylvanian Life
Driving around Romania during one of the hottest summers I can remember, I got to see the many faces of daily life — in both sadness and joy. These traditionally dressed locals were bringing cake to a wedding. No sign of ice cream. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.