A group of people who work at the site where I had my expatriate assignment started a loose association of people interested in photography. The goal was to improve our skills at photography by choosing a subject that we would critique each persons photos of at the next gathering.

I wrote about the initial topic chosen, nature in the city, back when I first posted a photo of my favorite subject, the 13th century church which is about 100 yards from my former apartment in Grenoble. In that photo, the plants growing out of the crevasses and corners in the old, carved stones seemed to be a fascinating illustration of how nature takes hold even in artificial environments.

I hope to continue to participate even if only by email, and the new subject is culture. I don’t think there is any limitation beyond that single word. The photo below was taken with that subject in mind, it is of a tower from the old city wall that has been incorporated into a museum (an aside, there is a small courtyard dedicated to the rights of man and liberty with several plaques commemorating the town participation in the French Revolution, a declaration of universal human rights in the 20th century, and a small plaque thanking the US colonel of paratroopers who liberated Grenoble in World War II), and the local theater which if the posters are any indication, has a very active resident company. Even though it is only 60 yards from my apartment, I never attended any performances because my skills in French never reached the point I thought would be sufficient to appreciate the performances. Perhaps I was wrong, for the performance is in everything other than the words themselves.

Given the tower from the old city wall juxtaposed with the 1960s-vintage metalwork in the center of the photo and the illuminated “theatre” on the right, I thought it to be an interesting juxtaposition of different aspects of culture appropriate to the topic of the group.

As always, a larger photo can be seen in a pop-up window by clicking on the image below.

This image has not been cropped, nor have the contrast or light levels been altered, so it is relatively true to the colors I saw when I took the photo. Opinions are welcome.

If I am fortunate, it was not raining today and I was able to go to the brocante (kind of a flea-market) to take more photos and perhaps buy a few small mementos before I leave France tomorrow. If I have an Internet connection and the time, I will try to post any worthwhile photos later today.

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