Danny and I are in Germany at present, Cologne (Köln) to be specific, visiting the Photokina trade fair. It's been a whirlwind tour through Europe getting here. In 5 days we travelled through Las Angeles, London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne. What an incredible week of contrasts. The cities, especially Paris and Amsterdam, were incredible, so romantic with their old world charm and architecture, but with unfortunate modern contrasts. If Mc Donalds down the road from
Notre Dame wasn't enough, how about the accommodation we have in Cologne?
This is a table in the restaurant. The place is a haze of stale cigarette smoke and cooking oil, shelves adorned with stuffed toys and English country music. I'd never stay here again if it wasn't for the wonderful people and good food. No one here speaks a lick of English but somehow we manage because they're so nice. I guess that's why the restaurant was full of 'suits', people you would only see at the Stamford Plaza at home.
I laughed when I went to the restaurant bathroom however, as it was so modern I thought I must have entered a neighboring building.
Being someone that loves books, however, the greatest contrast was between the books I found at Notre Dame and the
Louvre and the horrible, cheap, mass produced books being flogged by the truckload at Photokina.
Amongst precious items like the
Mona Lisa and
Venus de Milo the books were equally precious artefacts contain our history, our stories, our culture.
You won't find cover designs like these on a
Queensberry album, but you'll certainly see the same pride, sense of purpose and craftsmanship. At the end of the day it is the sharing and honouring of stories that is the goal.
I won't include a photo of the "Photokina" books. Suffice to say most (not all) are tacky, cheap and don't respect any level of craftsmanship or longevity. In fact so little craftsmanship is involved, we sat today stunned as a demonstrator haphazardly assembled a book with one hand as he held his mobile phone in the other.
I feel some excitement about these new books, as people are finally able to move their digital files off their hard drives onto paper so they can be appreciated. But important stories need to be honoured, treated with respect and enhanced through beautiful and timeless presentation, not jammed into the cheapest book available.
An amazing week none the less, fascinating and inspiring. I love life's contrasts, it's a wonderful reminder that we are all different.
Danny and I are in Germany at present, Cologne (Köln) to be specific, visiting the Photokina trade fair. It's been a whirlwind tour through Europe getting here. In 5 days we travelled through Las Angeles, London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne. What an incredible week of contrasts. The cities, especially Paris and Amsterdam, were incredible, so romantic with their old world charm and architecture, but with unfortunate modern contrasts. If Mc Donalds down the road from Notre Dame wasn't enough, how about the accommodation we have in Cologne?
This is a table in the restaurant. The place is a haze of stale cigarette smoke and cooking oil, shelves adorned with stuffed toys and English country music. I'd never stay here again if it wasn't for the wonderful people and good food. No one here speaks a lick of English but somehow we manage because they're so nice. I guess that's why the restaurant was full of 'suits', people you would only see at the Stamford Plaza at home.
I laughed when I went to the restaurant bathroom however, as it was so modern I thought I must have entered a neighboring building.
Being someone that loves books, however, the greatest contrast was between the books I found at Notre Dame and the Louvre and the horrible, cheap, mass produced books being flogged by the truckload at Photokina.
Amongst precious items like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo the books were equally precious artefacts contain our history, our stories, our culture.
You won't find cover designs like these on a Queensberry album, but you'll certainly see the same pride, sense of purpose and craftsmanship. At the end of the day it is the sharing and honouring of stories that is the goal.
I won't include a photo of the "Photokina" books. Suffice to say most (not all) are tacky, cheap and don't respect any level of craftsmanship or longevity. In fact so little craftsmanship is involved, we sat today stunned as a demonstrator haphazardly assembled a book with one hand as he held his mobile phone in the other.
I feel some excitement about these new books, as people are finally able to move their digital files off their hard drives onto paper so they can be appreciated. But important stories need to be honoured, treated with respect and enhanced through beautiful and timeless presentation, not jammed into the cheapest book available.
An amazing week none the less, fascinating and inspiring. I love life's contrasts, it's a wonderful reminder that we are all different.