Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
What’s silver and red and dotted around the business district? The answer is very simple - benches.
I often walk past these benches during the day and of course, all I see is the moulded silver strips that comprise their form. But four or five weeks ago, we were walking past them on a long summer evening - and I suddenly noticed another aspect.
As dusk advanced, there was a soft red tone to them, emanating from lights switched on automatically under the benches (see photo above) bathing them in a glow that evoked some space-age invention. Even the most mundane sights can look transformed if you take the time to view them differently.
(Extra, extra, read all about it: I've been interviewed here. Thank you to all those who have followed this link and checked out the interview. There have been so many wonderful comments that I've tried to reply to each one personally - but you're setting a cracking pace. My humble and heartfelt thanks to all of you for the wonderful tributes and thoughts you have shared on the interview.)
Visit the creative team behind That's MyWorld Tuesday.
A treat for the eye and the soul. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a warm place to sit!
ReplyDeleteCraig
I love the way you captured the beauty of this simple object.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you showed us what that was, because I would've laid awake nights trying to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteAs always, a unique perspective on the everyday.
What a great idea lighting up the benches from underneath.
ReplyDeleteGreat shots again! You have such a good eye (well, two I hope ;-)).
ReplyDeleteOh, and in answer to your comment on my Bachpost: flattery will get you everywhere LOL, thanks!
What a neat idea with the benches David. In a way they remind me of the lit seats for every victim of the OKC Bombing at the Memorial.
ReplyDeleteHi David and all: I love weird pictures where there's color along with an interesting pattern, but one doesn't necessarily know at what they're looking. (I avoided ending that sentence with a preposition.) Kit and I posted a new/old add-on poem we wrote once while staying at a sub-standard motel in Grand Forks, North Dakota. More later, Johnnny!
ReplyDeleteWarm but not easy on the tush
ReplyDeleteVery cool. I tried something similar a few years ago with the older style wooden slat benches but ignored the newer metal ones. Now I see that was a mistake. Thanks for sharing an artistic view of an every day object that we usually take for granted.
ReplyDeleteYou stopped and took the time to "see." Thanks for the heads up to the rest of us to do the same.
ReplyDeleteWow, the benches look so warm! I never would have guessed benches from the first photo! Amazing!
ReplyDeleteI love that you see beauty in the most mundane things and sweetly teach us to see it too.
ReplyDeleteSimply lovely David...
ReplyDeleteHUGS,
Donna
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteGood louk
Looks like a warm place to sit!
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a bench lighted from beneath. Very photogenic.
ReplyDeleteSpace-age indeed! Fascinating!
ReplyDeleteWell, I really thought that was venetian blinds at first.
ReplyDeleteYou must have felt you were sitting on hot air!
Congratulations ... saw you were chosen a blog of note so popped over, thoroughly delighted by my visit. Love your photos!
ReplyDeleteVery, very cool shot!
ReplyDeleteSheila
I like that first one especially - I am always intrigued by close-ups that make an objcte look like an abstract painting.
ReplyDeleteWOW@ A bench at night with that lighting is simply divine. I have a bench blog and want to link back to this om this next week. My friend in France who also has a bench blog will enjoy seeing it. Ü
ReplyDeleteThey used to electrify chairs and keep them in special rooms in prisons. Now there are backlit benches on public streets. Hmmmm...
ReplyDeleteVery perceptive. It reminds me of the bars on an electric fire but you probably don't need them in Australia and don't know what I am talking about.
ReplyDeleteThese are such great shots! shots that make a simple bench really beautiful and different and interesting. You do great things with your camera, David! Love it!
ReplyDeleteI'm a big believer in breaking your eye open - trying to throw away old associations and assumptions and seeing things 'for the first time', etc.
ReplyDeleteI love that up-close photo! It reminds me of this material we used to make bracelets out of at summer camp. :)
Another Bench mark - my friend. great shots of a wonderful item.
ReplyDeleteWow that is very cool, great myworld post David.
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!
Guy
Regina In Pictures
The second has a muscial intsrument feel so that image hit the right note. Beautifully captured light and colour.
ReplyDeleteHi David,
ReplyDeletelooking at your first photo I never dreamed that could be a bench! extremely beautiful!
"The beauty of art can be found in the strangest of places!"
All the best, Donnie
We have benches along the river near my house and I've always loved the view through the slats.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos, in their own right. I would never, ever have guessed what you photographed if you hadn't told me.
ReplyDeleteVery excellent find! Definitely something unexpected. Thanks for sharing with us!
ReplyDeleteIt does look like a space age invention. I'll look twice at benches from now on.
ReplyDeleteWonderful Work David.. awesome
ReplyDeleteSo simple and so beautiful! And I read your interview with interest!
ReplyDeleteToo cool! I never would have guessed from the first photo what this was a picture of...I think this might be one of my all-time favorite authorblog pictures! I love the lines and the hot colors. You have a great eye - I would have just kept on walking. Thanks for helping me to look at the world with a different lens!
ReplyDeleteYou never fail to find those wonders in everyday places.
ReplyDeleteI just read your interview. You're always a treat. :)