Gaston.
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highcontrastgrey.bsky.social
Gaston.
@highcontrastgrey.bsky.social
240 followers 76 following 250 posts
A nomad, a collector, a flâneur, a bohemian artist, a tea cup kind of guy, a Master of Architecture currently searching for a new home.
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highcontrastgrey.bsky.social
Looking up on #BlueSkyMonday in Aix.
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#aixenprovence #provence #france #urbanphotographer #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited
Looking up at the sky between the valley of golden stone buildings of Provence. The light illuminates the top storey of the building as it chases away the shadows those of us at the ground thrive in. Thin, whispy clouds break up the field of blue above.
May 19, 2025 at 4:51 PM
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For #selfportraitsunday quiet candlelit evening at home.
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#vintagestyle #dapper #bohemian #photography #vintage #portrait #selfportrait #vintagefashion #antique
A candle just out of frame illuminates my apartment. Hand to my chin, I gaze at the dancing flame - watching it swirl and twist as the wax of the candle shrinks. I'm wearing my great grandmother's beret, pulled to a point in front of me with her Scottish crest pin resting behind my ear, to match my black suit jacket. Although, it's the weekend, so I'm casually omitting a tie. One can't be too formal when home alone on a Sunday.
May 19, 2025 at 4:46 AM
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For FlashBackFriday #fbf and Friday #scape : foggy morning flânerie à Rennes.
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#Rennes #Bretagne #France #urbanphotographer #streetphotography #cityscape #wanderlust #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited
Foggy morning near République. The streets are empty as clouds devour the tops of buildings in Rennes. Mansards fade away into the white of the sky. Looking down the road in the center of town, the repeating form of tall street lights lining the river rest at the same height while the road undulates below.
May 16, 2025 at 2:30 PM
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For #adoorablethursday this number 2 TARDIS blue door in Pigalle.
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#Paris #France #urbanphotographer #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited
Beautiful stone Parisian construction blends the ground floor and first storey in varying hues of grey as though it has been raining, but only drenched part of the building. Recessed in this double-height doorway is a TARDIS blue double door with shiny brass details. Above this door a Juliette balcony with a less-violet blue and white trim completes the doorway.
May 15, 2025 at 11:05 PM
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For #WindowsOnWednesday looking above a kebab shop in Glasgow.
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#glasgow #scotland #urbanphotographer #streetphotography #cityscape #wanderlust #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited #moody
A selection of four windows above a "Morello no.146 kebabs, pizzas, burgers" neon sign. The bright greens and oranges of the sign stands out boldly on a black field upon a yellow (well, yellow-grey) sandstone Glasgow tenement. The lower two windows have curtains matching the stone parted to expose the black interior of an unilluminated home. Some poppies peer out the window on the right. Striving for light and remembrance upon the world. The upper two windows have white paper curtains that fold down and reflect a more modern sentiment. One open one closed.
May 15, 2025 at 12:24 AM
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For #selfportraitsunday a pause for tea but I appear to have misplaced the café.
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#vintagestyle #dapper #bohemian #photography #vintage #photoshoot #portrait #selfportrait #vintagefashion #tea #antique
Dressed in my best antique French tuxedo and bowler, I stand with my teacup and saucer in hand. Looking out, I have somehow found myself in a forest next to a rushing river, far from civilization and cafés and everywhere that I would hope to find myself. At least I have some tea to ground me in my memories of civilization.
May 11, 2025 at 6:23 AM
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For #adoorablethursday this lovely door at number 52 in Aix.
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#aixenprovence #provence #france #urbanphotographer #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited
A façade in Aix. The Provencial stone glows with a golden hue with taches of greys and browns giving texture and beauty to the unrefined and imperfect. An enameled metal 52 is embedded into the wall by the upper-left carved stone of the entrance door framing. That classic French white field with blue numbers. Bundles of wires dance around the exterior of the building to give hint that it may have been constructed before the advent of electricity or our worldly connections via cables. Above the entry doorway there's a 1st storey window framed out in repeated order of its neighbors, but is only a quarter open as a window, as the rest has been filled in. Shutter open, it exposes a solitary potted plant, a piece of living nature in an otherwise stone and metal setting.
April 24, 2025 at 6:18 PM
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Early morning flânerie à Rennes.
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#Rennes #Bretagne #France #urbanphotographer #streetphotography #cityscape #wanderlust #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #nightscape #photographersunited
A sleepy, rainy city beginning to wake up under a grey-blue sky where night holds onto its last vestiges of darkness. The streets are stained in rainwater and the lights stream vertically across the pavement in their hazy reds and yellows. All the apartment lights are still turned off - with a few shutters closing the world off - as the buildings sleep under the white noise of Bretagne rain. There's a beauty in the quiet early morning where few are out or awake. A feeling that the streets are for the taking. That the sound of one's footsteps on the wet pavement has yet to be lost in the din of the day.
April 22, 2025 at 11:35 PM
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For the weekly #ClassicMono : Paris flânerie through Pigalle
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#paris #france #urbanphotographer #streetphotography #cityscape #wanderlust #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #blackandwhitephotography #monochromephotography #bnwphotography #monochrome #photographersunited #nightscape
Black and white Paris. It's night and the streetlight flares as though it were directed by JJ Abrams. The life of the evening fills the lively streets as people dash about, passing by the illuminated restaurants attempting to lure them in.
April 22, 2025 at 6:10 AM
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For #selfportraitsunday a pause for back alley tea under the snow.
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#vintagestyle #dapper #bohemian #photography #vintage #photoshoot #portrait #selfportrait #vintagefashion #tea #antique
Dressed in my best antique French tuxedo, I rest against a back alley brick wall. My bright red parasol up, it keeps the falling snow off of me as I sip my tea. I've perched my vintage Samsonite suitcase on top of a metal girder to act as my table for my teaset.
April 20, 2025 at 7:04 PM
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For the #BlueSkyArtShow subject of #dream this week : a Proustian examination of my travels. (Although my videos never seem to do well on Bluesky ...)
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#moody #wanderlust #vintagestyle #dapper #bohemian #photography #vintage #photoshoot #portrait #selfportrait #vintagefashion #tea #antique #video
April 19, 2025 at 3:54 PM
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For FlashBackFriday #fbf and Friday #scape : flânerie nocturne à Rennes.
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#Rennes #Bretagne #France #urbanphotographer #streetphotography #cityscape #wanderlust #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #nightscape #photographersunited
Rennes at night. There's a competition of lighting temperatures for streetlights illuminating a shut corner shop (Kaki Crazy Station with its anglophone name painting a curious setting in France) - warm yellow to the left and cold white to the right. The chamfered corner between the two holds the shadow line, preventing their combative mixture while the night claims the Mansard roof of the building, bathing it in blackness. Only thin slivers of light escaping from the attic apartment windows hold back the complete consumption by the inky night. Streetlights expose a palimpsest of old graffiti - scrubbed of, but leaving a lighter wall shade - hastily scrawled upon the space between windows of the first storey. Were the artists precariously perched on the thin ledge of shop façade, or did they have better means of reaching such heights ?
April 18, 2025 at 2:55 PM
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For #adoorablethursday this lovely door in Glasgow for the former bank of Scotland. I do wish more things had faces on them.
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#Glasgow #Scotland #urbanphotographer #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited
Doorway of the former Bank of Scotland branch in Glasgow. Located at the corner of Carlton Terrace and Bridge Street. Architect : John Burnet, senior (1814-1901), 1857. The mascaron is unclear. It could be the goddess Demeter (Ceres) because of the fruit and ears of corn, or the blindfold may point to Themis. Sculptor : John Crawford (1830-61)
April 17, 2025 at 2:43 PM
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Spring morning tea for the #ArtOfSelfPortraiture
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#vintagestyle #dapper #bohemian #photography #vintage #photoshoot #portrait #selfportrait #vintagefashion #tea #antique
Sitting at a small table by a window, there's a bouquet of flowers that have dried in their glass vase. A couple of teacups sit on the table in front of the flowers with their cups overturned on the saucers. No friends are visiting to join for the morning tea. I sit in at the table, lazily holding my teacup as I gaze out at the diffused light filtering through the lace curtains. The springtime winds shake the old windows in their frames as I look up to the sky and wish for rain. My apartment is an oasis of civilization while I'm in exile. All dressed up and with nowhere to go. I'm not wearing my jacket, but still wearing my best antique suit.
April 17, 2025 at 8:05 AM
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For #WindowsOnWednesday : looking up at the patchwork quilt of windows in Paris.
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#Paris #France #urbanphotographer #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited #nightscape
Paris at night. Looking up, the tops of the buildings get lost in the darkness of night except for the illuminated windows putting out different shades of yellows like glowing golden gems. The decorations on the balcons become silhouettes in front of the illuminated windows. A tree twists and dances before its spotlight of the center stage second storey window.
April 16, 2025 at 5:21 PM
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Flânerie nocturne.
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#rennes #bretagne #france #urbanphotographer #streetphotography #cityscape #wanderlust #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #nightscape #photographersunited
Rennes at night. The liminal space of the groundfloor shop lights on at the corner store, but no one is to be found. The old stone buildings are illuminated by streetlights mounted to the sides of the buildings. The white light streaming down the sides of the buildings shows off the curves of the buildings that flaunt their bulging center. There's a beauty in architecture that pushes beyond the boundaries of straight lines.
April 15, 2025 at 8:10 PM
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For the weekly #ClassicMono : Paris flânerie in the 18ème.
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#paris #france #urbanphotographer #streetphotography #cityscape #wanderlust #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #blackandwhitephotography #monochromephotography #bnwphotography #monochrome #photographersunited #nightscape
Black and white street view of Paris. Walking down the middle of a pedestrianized street in Paris, a man buries his hands deep in his jacket pockets. Slightly hunched, he hopes to keep warm on the walk. To his left, a gathering has come together outside a brightly illuminated doorway. Unknown what is through the light, it fills the street with the long shadows of those who wait outside of it.
April 14, 2025 at 7:08 AM
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For #selfportraitsunday some morning tea at home.
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#vintagestyle #dapper #bohemian #photography #vintage #photoshoot #portrait #selfportrait #vintagefashion #tea #antique
Sitting at a small table by a window, there's a bouquet of flowers that have dried in their glass vase. A couple of teacups sit on the table in front of the flowers with their cups overturned on the saucers. No friends are visiting to join for the morning tea. I sit in at the table, pouring myself some tea with turning away from the diffused light filtering through the lace curtains. My apartment is an oasis of civilization while I'm in exile. All dressed up and with nowhere to go. I'm not wearing my jacket, but still wearing my best antique suit.
April 13, 2025 at 8:13 AM
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For Saturday's #BlueSkyArtShow theme of #peaceful : a flânerie along the canals of Paris at blue hour.
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#Paris #France #urbanphotographer #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited #cityscape #streetphotography #bluehour
The blue hour in Paris. The sun has just set, but the sky is still a bright light blue as the last vestiges of the day have yet to be cast away. Looking out across the dark waters of a canal, the streetlights reflect their bright lights. Slowly people are returning to their homes and turning their lights on, creating a patchwork quilt of light upon their building's façade. A tagged graffiti delivery van glows under the streetlights adding that touch of life, where people add their own little mark upon their city.
April 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
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For FlashBackFriday #fbf and Friday #scape : the Pollok House in Glasgow.
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#Glasgow #Scotland #wanderlust #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited
It's a cloudy day in Scotland while wandering the Pollok Country Park in the southwest of Glasgow. Looking at the eastern side of the Pollok house and where the library is kept, the view out is of a beautifully manicured geometric hedge maze (at knee height so as no one gets lost). The house, built in 1752, is of that beautiful Scottish grey and tan stone, and the chimneys show years of usage, as the closer to the top, the blacker they get. Irregularities of stone give way to different shades under the pollution. Like a patchwork quilt, the beauty is not in the sameness, but the coming together of differences.
April 11, 2025 at 2:41 PM
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For #adoorablethursday this number 11 door in Paris with beautiful red flowers.
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#Paris #France #urbanphotographer #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited
A wooden door in Paris. The Parisians love their details, and this façade is no exception - carved filigree adorns the doorway header, which has resting up it a short but wide Juliette balcony covered in small pots of plants. Ivy is taking over the balcony, and a wide planter of red flowers hangs over the balcony railing. The green and reds are a beautiful contrast to the light tan of the stone and the oak of the door.
April 10, 2025 at 7:42 AM
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Out hiking for #waterfallwednesday
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#selfportrait #vintagestyle #dapper #bohemian #photography #vintage #photoshoot #portrait #vintagefashion #antique #photographersunited #hiking
Once again, I've found myself in the middle of nowhere, far from civilization, but taking a little break to watch a waterfall. Standing at the water's edge and dressed in my best antique French tuxedo, I jauntily rest my vintage red floral parasol on my shoulder. The brisk winds whip down the chasm caused by eons of water slowly eroding away at the landscape and the chill of the wet wind laps at my face. The warmth of the many layers of antique wool sustain me.
April 9, 2025 at 4:26 PM
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Pont de Bir-Hakeim.
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#Paris #France #urbanphotographer #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited #cityscape #streetphotography
A deserted view in Paris looking out from the Pont de Bir-Hakeim. The Art Nouveau riveted columns in their organic curved forms hold up the upper elevated train track. It's a grey spring day with clouds blocking the sunlight and the trees only starting to once again turn green after a long break.
April 9, 2025 at 6:08 AM
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Parisian flânerie in the blue hour as the neon lights take hold of the city's valleys.
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#Paris #France #urbanphotographer #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited #cityscape #streetphotography #moody #neonlights
Paris in the blue hour - when the sky is shining its last bit of silvery blue, but the darkness of night has already started to claim the streets. Looking out from the lower of a split-level street, the neon signs of the city fill the darkened valleys. A green cross dances on the corner, signaling the pharmacy, while red and yellow lights next door advertise a boucherie. The colors of lights compete in a display of contrasting colors.
April 8, 2025 at 4:08 PM
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The golden light around the corner.
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#Paris #France #urbanphotographer #photography #architecture #architecturephotography #photographersunited #cityscape #streetphotography #moody #nightscape
Paris at night. It's late and most people have already turned off the lights and ended their day. Headed to bed and ready to let the next day start. The building in the foreground looks like a slice has been taken out of the side where the details don't wrap the corner and from there a golden light glows. An architectural valley filled with light.
April 7, 2025 at 2:30 PM