”In the visual arts a cityscape (urban landscape) is an artistic representation, such as a painting, drawing, print or photograph, of the physical aspects of a city or urban area.” This is the Wikipedia definition, and I must express my love for the easiness by which the English language constructs new words, adding – scape is only one possibility.
I must admit, this time I have had to struggle a bit, because I seldom take the time to see a city from a high up vantage point. I am not a city girl – more of a town girl and most of a country girl. I do enjoy visiting big cities for a very short time – for the architecture and all the other arts found in museums, opera houses, exhibition halls and the like. But one week is enough for me. Thus, my photos for Patti’s challenge, are mostly shot from boats, trains or planes. I have to excuse the lesser quality through all those windows…and the biggest city, Shanghai (25 million people), in rain.
Rain, fog and smog – that is Shanghai, and so many other big cities all over the world – in China not the least…but here I found most of my cityscape photos.
We managed to get a short glimpse of Shanghai by night – in heavy rain.
Our ship passed many big cities on the Yangtze cruise – I don’t even remember their names…
…through the windows it seemed to me…they all looked – the same.
Now we are on the other side of the world, Quito (2 million people), Ecuador. The people here are gentle and very sweet, and I loved their friendly and colourful city.
How about returning to Europe? London (8 million people) is an absolute favorite with me, and I have chosen the moment I first saw the Shard – through a dirty train window on arriving from Gatwick. Funny, I was chocked, I did not even know it existed!
Another favorite is Barcelona (1.6 million) – the home of so many of Gaudí’s architectural masterpieces. I do plan to return to see the Cathedral finished.
I recently found a new favorite city of mine, in Bulgaria – ancient Plovdiv (345000 people, and 2019, The European Capital of Culture). A true gem.
Lastly, my nearest big city in Sweden, Malmoe, with its 312000 inhabitants. A windy city by the sea, just opposite Copenhagen on the other side of the water. Shot through the plane window flying in with a beautiful sunset. The only skyscraper you will see here is Turning Torso – by the architect Santiago Calatrava.
In the header, the City of Cities – Rome, in late afternoon light.
Thank you to Patti for this wonderful opportunity to dig in the archives for cityscapes I did not think I had… and for the chance to see so many cityscapes I will never be able to visit!
Fab cityscapes! Wonderful images …
Thank you!
Your photographs are beautiful, and your travels are desirous ❤
♥
A beautiful post Ann-Christine. I’m with you as far as cities go. As they say here, nice to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there😊. Your B&W shot should be printed, framed and hung. It’s amazing
Well – that was a great comment! Much appreciated!
Ohh, you did great, no need to apologise for being the country girl. 😉 I love Quito and Plovdiv especially and now want to visit them just because you loved them so much. Must be worth it!
You will find many great doors there…
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Your photos are wonderful, but I love the first one!
Thank you – I love Rome, and thought it beautiful as an oil💛
Gorgeous collection, as always. They are all stunning but my favorite one is Quito, Ecuador. It is probably for their colors or I just love the old cities.
Thank you so much! Quito is forever in my heart❤
I’m not a city girl (London is only a couple of hours away and I haven’t been there for years, except for the airport), but I loved looking at your great variety of cityscapes. So many stunning sights!
Ah, now, I appreciate your comment so much, Dina! I guessed you were not a city girl, but we can appreciate looking from afar…? Hope you got the snow you wished for this Christmas!
Unfortunately not! We have had frosty nights but nooooo snow. So far. 🙂
Then I hope it will soon come to you!
I think it’s cool just have one skyscraper in the city, This is a great collection for cityscapes!
Thank you, Amy! It was great fun trying to find them – in fact I only thought of China for this, as skyscrapers seemed to almost be a must. So happy you liked my collection!
Simply perfect your shot from the dirty train at London. Very good all the entry. Cheers!
Cheers and thank you!
I am such a city girl and I read your post with such interest, Ann-Christine. The buzz of life and on-the-move feeling draws me to cities. Spectacular shots of cities across the world even though most through windows…can hardly tell. Cities while so dense, are so different. China might be sprawling with high rise after high rise, and then you have Ecuador and Barcelona where the buildings are much shorter. Lovely post all round 🙂
I do know you are a city girl, Mabel! But you also live in a very beautiful one. Thank you for reading with interest even if you do not agree with me! But that is just as it should be, isn’t it? We cannot have the same preferences all of us. I must admit though, that after all those ”grey and dull” skyscrapers along the Yangtze river, I had expected to be overwhelmed in Shanghai – but I wasn’t. I am afraid the weather destroyed most of the glory. Overwhelmed I was instead of Tina Shell’s photos of Shanghai – glorious colours and weather, and glorious skills from Tina!
So true. We cannot have the same preferences. Instead we can agree to disagree, and learn a different perspective. Tina’s photos of Shanghai were amazing. She really caught it on a good day. Your photos are no short of stunning, and you present Shanghai at a different side on a different day 🙂
So we are grown-ups with grown-up thinking. Good for us and people around us. Thank you, Mabel. As I used to write on the board for my students: 6 or 9? They are different depending on where you stand…
Love the varied moods and perspectives of these cities, Ann-Christine! It’s a pleasant surprise when your archives show pictures you never thought you’d see, isn’t it?
Thank you, Anita. I am glad you like the different perspectives – it easily gets boring otherwise! Surely the challenges are good for many things, and one of them is finding things you have forgotten you had!
For someone who struggled, you did really well. These are great. I especially like the shot of Plovdiv. I love cities that blend with nature, I was going to put up nearly the same angle on the Shard, so glad I didn’t now. Great Photos!
Thank you so much, Gavin! But I would have loved to see your Shard as well! Frankly, I never went to see it after this encounter from the train. I was a bit disappointed of London to bring up such a monster…but, I know many people would say they love it. For me, London is the old London with its beautiful stone architecture and Victorian air.
yes, I agree, but that London is still there. It was Tony’s Blairs deputy, John Prescott who decided we needed to go upwards. I think we need to be a modern city at the same time as maintaining our rich history.
I am planning ablog just on buildings soon as I have taken some different ones along the way!
True – so depending on your preferences, you can always visit what you want…but I have to add, you can be modern without gigantic glass monsters…I think my problem is the too high buildings towering over others. But I guess they are space saving.
I’m on if you start that new building blog!
I will look at that tonight. I have a few, not so big but interesting shots. I love them, so yeah I’ll do that. Maybe I could start a building blog challenge!
I am on! Great idea – that would bring in many interesting entries, I am sure.
Prague night time city skyline.
I am sorry that I have never been to Prague…but some day! It is a very beautiful city.
It is very Beautiful… the world is so beautiful 😍 Thanks for the comment!
Thank you for commenting as well!
This is a wonderful selection. The challenge is really throwing up some first class pictures this week.
Well, I am glad you enjoyed it. With this theme there should be many interesting entries I hope!
You may not be a city person but you take good photos of them. Must admit I live in the city and I travel to stay away. Sweden is a beauty city as far u can remember.
I am glad you like the shots, and I do like cities for so many things – but could never imagine living there. Good idea to travel to get away from it sometimes
Your shots are beautiful!
Thank you!
I too am not a city person. Your cityscapes are fabulous A-C 😀😀
Ah, thank you so very much! Well, I think I knew you were not…
I love your header image of Rome. I guess you’ve edited it in some way? It looks very pleasing!
Thank you – yes, I have made an oil painting out of it, using Photosketcher.
It’s gorgeous and Photosketcher sounds interesting,I’ll look it up.
It is a tool for fun indeed – worth trying! I am glad you think the Rome ”painting” turned out well.
Well, well, A-C. You have a lot more cityscapes than you thought!! You have many beautiful shots here. I especially love your ”painterly” shot of Rome. Wonderful! I’m curious about Plovdiv. I’ve never been to that part of the world.
Thank you, Patti! I saw it was not exactly the same as your Rome shot, so I hope it is OK. I do like admiring cityscapes, preferably from afar, but living in them gives me the chills. And then I think about all those high glass buildings…I would love to visit Sydney and the Opera house though.
Plovdiv is so worth visiting – there is another pace and very ancient history to learn about. Recommended!
I guess you wouldn’t like to be in the apartment we rented on the 55th floor!!! But I understand your comfort in more rural environments. It’s a personal preference. Sydney is well-worth a visit. You’d love the Northern Beaches. Absolutely gorgeous.
Mmm, I would…and I would have liked to visit that apartment of yours – 55th floor – I have never rented an apartment that high up. I wonder if I could have slept at all…