Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Theatrical Quality

Great Angle, Even If It Ain't Geometry

Photograph copyright: MIKE BRUCE

My colleague Mike Bruce recently spent a year in Prague, where he shot some memorable images and gave us some great blogposts on his site, The Dumpling Diaries, at www.planetranger.com/mikeandsylv. Since his return to Melbourne, I've been twisting his arm to put something on this blog. This picture (and it is a great angle, isn't it?) was shot during his time in that wonderful city. Here is the story of the picture, in his own words.

``This picture is of Prague's Národní Divadlo or National Theatre. It was inspired by Czech photographer Petr Šálek (website art33.com) who takes stunning wide-angle panoramas of the city, and did a brilliant day-time shot of this same vista. The National Theatre is Prague's little piece of Vienna. It was built in the 1860s, completely rebuilt in the 1880s after a fire and was the scene of the gala performance of Smetana's opera, Libuše. It stands directly opposite the city's famous Kavarna Slavia (Cafe Slavia) - the landmark, so-called First Republic-style cafe which played host to Prague's and Europe's intelligentsia before and during Communism. It was here where writers such as Vaclav Havel would exchange under tables their manuscripts that were banned from publication under Bolshevik rule.''

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