Monterosso al Mare, New Town

Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy. This gorgeous detail by Dana of one of the "Five Lands"--five small fishing villages that cling to Italy's Mediterranean coast--communicates beautifully how residents of Monterosso al Mare (al mare means "by the sea") have lived hidden away for centuries, safe from pirates, bandits, fascists and to some extent, even modernity (tourists like us, excepted). The villages have always had access to the sea, but residents could quickly vanish upward, into the steep hills, whenever necessary. And they've maintained their traditions, bending geography to their will, growing grapes for wine and other produce on ridges that jut out from the cliff, establishing a national park on the land above with paths connecting the villages, and fishing their sea for more than ten generations. Since Rick Steves put Cinque Terre on the European tour map, the villages now thrive as holiday destinations, but in our experience, visitors are largely respectful of the residents, customs, and landscape, making the Five Lands a remarkable place to visit. Dana? She wants to retire here...next week!

Vienna Boys' Choir from Above

The famed Vienna Boys' Choir performs on the altar of the Hapsburg's Imperial Chapel at Hofburg Palace (begun 1447) in Wien, Austria. We attended Bruckner's Mass in D-Minor in June of 2010. We were seated in the front row of a side balcony, high above, which offered this unique perspective. The Choir is divided into four touring choirs of equal standing. They share the tours, appearances in Vienna and recording projects. Each choir has a choirmaster and two tutors who travel with the boys. The voices? Angelic.

Photograph by Dana Angotti-Novick

North Pond with Snow and Skyline

Dana took this shot of Lincoln Park's North Pond and the Chicago skyline from the northwest shore of the pond in December 2010. Interesting how the clouds and wintry branch hang just above the cityscape, with blue skies to the east, above the trees. I like the solitude this photograph captures, the stillness, the sense of hibernation, of a cold but bright winter afternoon in the capital of the middle west. I also like the coloring, the way in which the blue skies, white, snow-covered pond, and silhouetted buildings (against the clouds) contrast with one another. And the way the skyline works in concert with the grass in the foreground and the trees to the east, to encircle the pond, suggests that the buildings are just as natural, perfectly in place, as the other elements in the picture. An intriguing composition.

Photograph by Dana Angotti-Novick

Lovely Decay

This photograph captures the essence of the romantic Grand Tour notion of Italy: beautiful not in spite of its age, but because of it, its history, its long, slow decay. A once-grand residence that wears its history on the outside--cracked walls, worn colors, centuries of repairs (futile attempts to slow time)--like this one in Ravello in southern Italy, communicates something universal, something uniquely human. While life is fleeting and time marches on no matter what we construct to slow its movement, the struggle itself, to commemorate the journey, to celebrate moments, and to contribute something that can stand as testament to the shared struggle of all peoples from all ages, is strikingly beautiful. When I look at this photograph (shot in the summer of 2008), I'm reminded of the American poet Wallace Stevens, who wrote, "Death is the mother of beauty." The village of Ravello, located just northeast of Amalfi Town, in Campania, may have been populated in the 5th Century by locals seeking refuge from the barbarian hordes who roamed freely following the fall of Rome. As such, the village is situated high above the coast, offering commanding views.

Photograph by Dana Angotti-Novick

Late Afternoon Along the River Windrush

Four weary English seniors seek refuge from an unusually warm June afternoon in Bourton-on-the-Water (the self-proclaimed Venice of the Cotswolds) on a bench along the River Windrush. This 2009 photograph possesses a touch of the absurd, with the perfectly still, faceless subjects lined up neatly on the bench, appearing to watch intently the action-less scene before them as one might attend to a show. Furthermore, the bench and its occupants seem to have been dropped into the foreground, unexpectedly, seated right in front of us, nearly in our space, outside the photo, bringing us into the scene. I also love the way the woman in pink, far right, on a second bench, is preoccupied with the four sitting together, while her husband rather absent mindedly considers a pigeon, as he hunches forward, resting the weight of his torso on his knees. This piece captures the slow, pleasant weariness of a warm summer holiday afternoon, the ennui of life's later years, and the playfulness that sometimes arises, naturally, when people come together in unoccupied moments.

Photograph by Dana Angotti-Novick

London Calling

This photograph, taken June 2010 from alongside the River Thames, near Westminster Pier, is remarkable for its vivid color, unique perspective, and wonderful portrayal of the key elements of empire: a vast, modern (for the time) communications network, and an unrivaled technological superiority, here represented by the British Empire's clock at Westminster, seat of government. When it was unveiled in 1859, this clock was the most accurate large-scale timepiece ever conceived, engineered and built, demonstrating that the industrious British had conquered even time itself. Commonly known as Big Ben, that name actually refers to the 14-ton bell housed in the tower above the clock, not the clock itself--although each of the four clock faces on the tower is 23 feet in diameter. I like the way the tree branches reflect in the glass window of the phone booth at right (almost appearing to be inside the booth), and how the tree blocks, partially, one's view of the clock tower. There's a suggestion of nature beyond our control, imposing, on-the-move, reclaiming, perhaps, some of the space occupied by the man-made objects of empire, of human will.

Photo by Dana Angotti-Novick

Hallstatt from Above

Dana captured this stunning view of the Protestant church and Hallstatt's Marktplatz on 28 June 2010 from the Catholic Church cemetery above the town. The tiny hamlet of Hallstatt (population about 900), located in Austria's Salzkammergut Lake District about four hours via train from Vienna, is a beautiful, slow, and blissfully quiet place. Upon arrival in Hallstatt, the train drops you off at a little station across the lake (built in a clearing in the woods at the foot of a mountain), and a boat called Stefanie carries you and your luggage across placid Lake Hallstatt to the town. For thousands of years people have mined salt from these mountains. Around 1600 B.C., a brine spring drew Bronze Age people to the area. The rock was about 70 percent salt, a substance that could preserve meat and help sustain life. In the region salt is referred to as White Gold because of the tremendous value it possessed. This gorgeous photograph reveals one of Dana's photographic trademarks: a subject framed partially by flora or fauna in the foregound.

Photo by Dana Angotti-Novick

Moment of Truth

Taken in the Italian Cinque Terre village of Vernazza in July of 2009 (at Piazza Marconi), this photo captures a universal moment in childhood. An Italian boy sizes up what remains of his slice of pizza, and you can almost hear him thinking, Is this enough to share? What will I have left if I give some to her? while the little girl studies the boy's face, leaning forward expectingly, hopefully, in a sweet and perfect moment of truth.

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Photo by Dana Angotti-Novick

A Little Mercy

Three young Spaniards wait for their train at Madrid's Estacion de Atocha at about noon on New Year's Day, 2009. Madrid's New Year's celebration at Puerta del Sol is a two-night affair, with a practice celebration the night of 30 December that draws tens of thousands of participants, and a New Year's Eve party the following night that is wilder and crazier than anything we've ever seen in the states. Following decades of oppressive, brutal rule by Franco in the 20th Century, the Spanish seem commited (with glee) to making up for lost time. These three kids spent the first day of 2010 praying for a little mercy.

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Photo by Dana Angotti-Novick

Il Dolce Far Niente

Seniors observe the evening passeggiata in Sorrento, Italy (Campania), on 27 June 2008. The passeggiata, a custom throughout Italy, brings residents of all ages out of their homes every evening to stroll the main pedestrian street, while cars are routed to other avenues. Neighbors visit, friends gossip, children play, young men and women flirt, and everyone seems to make the scene. Local seniors, like these four Sorrentines photographed discreetly by Dana, watch life in their town unfold from a front-row seat. Il dolce far niente: the sweetness of doing nothing.

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Photo by Dana Angotti-Novick

City on the Prairie

Dana took this wonderful photo of the Chicago skyline in Lincoln Park, on the northern edge of the North Pond, in June of 2007 (just east of the intersection of Deming and Lakeview). I love how the city appears to rise up from the prairie beneath a wide Midwestern sky, much the way it did in the 19th Century...twice.

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Photo by Dana Angotti-Novick

River Arno on Christmas

Shot on Christmas Day 2006, this photo of the River Arno, the Florentine neighborhood called Oltrarno, and the hill beyond known as Piazzale Michelangelo was shot from atop Ponte Vecchio (or the Old Bridge, dating from the 14th Century). Tuscany--and historic Firenze--are magical at Christmastime, with temperatures about twenty degrees warmer than Chicago, few tourists, and stunning views like this one.

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Photo by Dana Angotti-Novick

Market Day in Moreton

Dana has an appreciation of irony in her photography and an eye for ordinary moments that reveal, playfully but insightfully, the stages of life through which we all pass. In this photograph, shot in Moreton-in-Marsh in England's Cotswolds Hills in the summer of 2009, an old woman bikes into town for the centuries-old Tuesday market, defying the notion of "Elderly People" inching across the street aided by a cane suggested by the delightfully English road sign. I love the way the line of cars climbing up the road--also heading into town for the market--appears to trail behind the old woman. When one considers that Moreton was granted its market charter in 1227 AD, the procession into town from the surrounding countryside, here led by an old woman on a bicycle in 2010, is a long one, rich in history and ritual.

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Photo by Dana Angotti-Novick