Skip to content

Greek Series: Athens in Bird’s-Eye View

This post is part of the Greek Series, in which I recount my travel through Greece in pictures. So, the first two entries were all about Athens, as it was the starting point of our journey. It’s time to get away from the city smog (and Athens genuinely has much of it). But not before I show you some impressions from above the city looking down on a fantastic sea of urbanity. Most of Athens today is relatively young, as the city regressed into a small town up to the 19th century. After the country gained independence from the Ottoman empire, Athens became increasingly important again and exploded truly during the 20th century into the metropole it certainly is today. There are some street shots here as well, but most of the pictures were taken from one of the many hills of Athens with a beautiful blue sky as a permanent background. The last one is a panorama.

test

img_0180

img_0190

img_0191

img_3243

img_3330

img_3357

img_3343

img_3361

img_3387

img_6453

Greek Series: Urban Life in Athens

A short introduction to the series

In September 2013, friends and I backpacked through Greece and discovered a beautiful and amazing country torn between its ancient history and the struggles of the present. I shot a ton of pictures in these three weeks, and it took me months to sort them out. But my plan was right from the beginning to publish them on this blog. I just didn’t know how exactly. So, after some brainstorming, I decided to organize them thematically and post them in separate collections and not in chronological order, which didn’t seem like a good fit for this blog. So anyway, this is the first part of a long series of pictures that will continue through the winter. Occasionally, there may be some postings with wintery shots from Vienna, but apart from that, it will get sunny, at least over here (well, maybe not right from the beginning) 🙂

In full awareness of the ancient history of Greece and its stunning remains, I want to hold the old stones back for now and show you some impressions of urban life in Athens as I saw it.

test

img_0103

img_3486

img_0106

img_3487

img_0109

img_3377

img_3482

Photographing the new WU University Campus

Largely unnoticed, the new university campus of the Economic University of Vienna (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) was built in a relatively remote part of the city. So, most of us knew about the construction plans, but little did we know about the futuristic character and the sheer extent of the sight. What a surprise! The campus consists of about 6 to 8 buildings constructed by different architects in different styles. In common, they have a modern and environmentally friendly approach. They are centered around a student plaza, effectively creating a public space for its “citizens.” There are also a couple of cafés and shops there. One is the “Campus” (shot 4), with a mixed approach of modernism and natural elements of wood and plants. The centerpiece of the campus is the library (as it should be). It was designed by an architect from Hamburg and is simply astonishing (shots 2 – 3 exterior, shots 7 – 9 interior).

test

img_3876

img_3895

img_7430

img_4024-1

img_4589

img_4600

img_4605

img_40381

img_4031

Afternoon Project: London Pt. 3, Before Remembrance Day

As it turned out, the day I was in London on the 10th of November was the day before Remembrance Day, and Westminster was in complete preparations for the big event. Remembrance Day evolved out of the mourning for the death of World War I and became a kind of Veterans Day with many military parades and symbolism. Interestingly, the day before, there were a lot of veterans in White Hall, and I had the chance to photograph some of them.

test

img_4803_fotor

img_4821 img_4874_fotor img_4864_fotor img_4832_fotor

Afternoon Project: London Pt. 1

Being on a conference trip in London the past weekend, I had little spare time to enjoy the city alone. So there was just one Sunday afternoon to dive into the urban jungle of the British capital. Equipped with my camera, I wandered around Westminster, Trafalgar, up to Paddington, where I had to catch my train. So, the picture reflects the time constraints I had. There was no time to adjust and to wait for the perfect moment. I just captured the street life as it happened around me.

test

img_4945_fotorimg_4947_fotorimg_4928_fotorimg_4960_fotorimg_4925_fotor