“Cities in Six” series marries photography and writing

by Barb Lehtiniemi

Creative inspiration often strikes so quickly that later it’s impossible to track the sequence of thoughts that led to pursuing something completely different.  So I hope you’ll forgive me for not being able to outline how I got the idea for a series of articles called “Cities in Six”.

In these articles, which I wrote for The Voice magazine, I endeavoured to convey as much about a city as possible, using only six photos.  The only text would be minimal—a brief introduction, photo captions, plus a note on travel.

Since we’ve visited a number of European cities, and I take prodigious quantities of photos, I figured it would be a snap to throw together twelve or so Cities in Six pieces.  Well, it would have been very easy indeed if I had limited myself to taking only six photos of each city!

Instead, for each article I had hundreds of photos to review.  Of those, I usually selected a “short list” of twenty or so photos, then faced the challenge of whittling those down to the final six.  Although the process took time, it was fun to review photos from trips taken years ago, and savour the memories of the place.

In tandem with photo selection I began research into the city.  Although I learned a lot about each city during our visits, I learned even more online researching these articles.  There’s so much info available online I had little problem in finding enough info for photo captions.

I intended that the photo captions would be brief descriptions of the photos, but I got so immersed in research that I discovered all sorts of delicious details too good to leave out.   Instead I often used the photo captions to share info far beyond the scope of the image.

I ended up featuring twenty-four cities, sixteen European and eight Canadian.  Although the pieces were much more work than just writing an article, I derived much enjoyment from putting them together.

A few photos from the series are shown here.  To see all twenty-four Cities in Six features, go to my author’s page at www.voicemagazine.org/author/barbara-lehtiniemi and scroll down to access links to all my articles.

(Konstanz, Germany) Imperia.  The commanding 9-metre concrete Imperia statue towers over the harbour.  The statue represents a character in a story by Honoré de Balzac, about a woman who wielded influence over both Pope Martin V and German King Sigismund (who was also the Holy Roman Emperor.)  Although the sculptor, Peter Lenk, denies it, the naked figures in Imperia’s hands do resemble the two men.  The statue was controversial when it was erected in 1993 but has since become a well-known landmark of Konstanz and one of its top tourist attractions.

(Horta, Azores, Portugal)  Historic windmills.  On a hill overlooking Horta, one of a pair of restored windmills stands ready for iconic photos.  Faial has several dozen windmills, the design of which display both Portuguese and Flemish influences.  The windmills date from the 19th century, and were used for grinding grain. 

(Dawson City, Yukon) Writing retreat.  Former bank clerk Robert Service lived and wrote in this cabin on Eighth Avenue from 1909 to 1912.  The cabin was preserved after his departure and is now operated by Parks Canada.  Period re-enactors provide visitors with information about the “Bard of the Yukon” and recite such famous works as “The Cremation of Sam McGee”.  Writer Pierre Berton’s childhood home is almost directly across the street; it is now a writers’ retreat.

(Roskilde, Denmark) The Glendalough.  A modern replica of a ship on display in the Viking Ship Museum.  The original ship had been built near Dublin, Ireland around 1040.  Attempts to sail the replica from Denmark to Ireland and back in 2007 involved sea-sickness and hypothermia, plus an embarrassing tow from a support vessel.

Yep, you can share your words, photos, art – anything that demonstrates creativity. Send your stuff to cagac.ca@gmail.com