Into the Sky

I came across this photograph, taken of the Eibsee Lake in Bavaria, Germany on September 24, 2012, and found it so richly dimensional in its composition and evocative on several levels that I felt compelled to post it. What look like clouds (and they are, in a reverse trompe l’oeil kind of fashion) are actually reflections of clouds in the water, where a platform looks ready for someone to dive (or descend) into the “sky.” The image seems to create some subliminal sort of expectation without meaning to; it’s a juxtaposition that’s moodily dreamlike and lingers in the memory. An incidental piece of art that just happened to cross the wires on a run-of-the-mill news day…

(Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / AFP / Getty Images)

Hues of Holi

A celebration that encompasses a tumultuous spectrum of colored powder, scented water, and sheer exhilaration, the “Holi” festival, shown here in an image that looks more like a painting than a photo, taken in Heidelberg, Germany on August 12, 2012, is one of many that have crossed over in time and place to Europe (and around the world) from their homelands in South Asia. An ancient commemoration that usually welcomes the beginning of spring for those of the Hindu faith, Holi has been embraced in several German cities, where revelers immerse themselves — and each other — in a prismatic array of pigments as part of events that have come to be known as “Festivals of Color.” (The largest in the western hemisphere takes place in Spanish Fork, Utah, where this year’s festivities drew over 80,000 in March.)

(Photo: Fredrik von Erichsen /AFP/ Getty Images)

Puzzle Me This

A man strides atop a giant jigsaw of a self-portrait of artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), spread out in an area measuring over 3,000 square feet, in Nuremberg, Germany, 5/3/12. (For the record, the full title of the original painting is Self-Portrait at Twenty-Eight Years Old Wearing a Coat with Fur Collar…whew!) The huge creation, composed of 1,023 (oversized) pieces, will be reassembled in Moscow’s Red Square next month, in recognition of the historic relationship between Russia and Germany. It’s not the first undertaking of its kind in the painter’s birthplace of Nuremberg: a similarly massive project that recreated Dürer’s Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman
was constructed in 2005.

(Photo: Timm Schamberger / AP)

Easter Bloom

An apple tree is adorned with 10,000 Easter eggs in the German city of Saalfeld, a tradition begun in 1965 (with a mere 18 eggs) by a local resident, Volker Kraft. The Eierbaum (as it’s called in German) has blossomed into an annual event over the years, drawing thousands of visitors from around the region. The eggs — many crocheted, painted, or embroidered with pastoral and religious scenes by Kraft’s wife Christa and daughter Gabriela — are months in the preparation; storing them has become a bit of a problem, though, and this Easter may see the last of new creations for the now-famous arboreal attraction.

 (Photo: Martin Schutt /AFP/Getty Images)