To have new experiences, tourists prefer to stay in hotels in new destinations that are totally different from those which they have previously stayed in. The more different, the more attractive the new residential centers will be to them. In foreign c…
Year: 2019
Inside Kharanaq: The 1000-year-old ghost town set to become Iran’s newest World Heritage Site
“Be careful,” our guide warns as we set off to explore the passageways that form the collapsing arteries of the more than 1000-year-old village of Kharanaq, set to become Iran’s newest UNESCO World Heritage Site. “And don’t…
Arnold Genthe’s Fascinating Photos of Japan In 1908
In 1908 German-born American Arnold Genthe (1869-1942) went on a 6-month visit to Japan. Already a famous celebrity photographer based in San Francisco, Genthe took hundreds of photographs of the Asian country during what was called the Meiji era. A pe…
Haunted Hotel: Unfinished Abandoned Okinawa Resort Inn
[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ] The reputedly haunted Nakagusuku Hotel in Okinawa, Japan freaked-out construction workers so much, they walked off the job before the hotel was even finished. Guest Lost The ruins of the Nakagusuku Ho…
Beauty in ruins: the wonder of abandoned buildings – a photo essay
It was like hell on earth; everything coated in red dust and rust. The noise was immense, with steam and chemicals belching from all over – at one point I walked into a cloud of ammonia without a respirator. It was a massive nickel refinery and I was …
Portraits and Windows
Portraits and Windows Soomin Ham After discovering a lost box of photos made by her grandfather in the 1930s, this photographer constructed new visual composites by integrating her own contemporary images, printing everything on traditional handmade Kor…
Forget diet and exercise—for better health, we need better cities
In the places around the world where people live the longest, they don’t actually pursue health. They live longer because health ensues from the right environment. That is according to Dan Buettner, Blue Zones founder and National Geographic fellow, w…
Wonderful Cecil Beaton Photographs of the Tyneside Docks in 1943
Cecil Beaton is with out much doubt one of the great 20th Century photographers – famous for his images of society and fashionable subjects. Later in his life he turned just as successfully into film costumes (he won Oscars for My Fair Lady and Gigi) …
The Artistry of the Mentally Ill: The 1922 Book That Published the Fascinating Work of Schizophrenic Patients, and Influenced Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky & Other Avant Garde Artists
It’s an enduring irony of art history: artists whose work has come to define high culture are often characterized by various mental health issues. But the artwork of ordinary, anonymous people who struggle with those same issues is regarded as the…
Ship in Which Hundreds of Migrants Died Will Be Shown at the Venice Biennale
The Tunisian shipping vessel sank off the coast of Libya (Photo courtesy of BARCA NOSTRA © BARCA NOSTRA) The majority of migrants who have died trying to reach Europe have drowned in the turbid waters of the Mediterranean Sea. In 2015, more than 2,900 …
Darjeeling: Train stops, driver removes bike from tracks, moves on
Darjeeling: Are the motorists in Darjeeling risking their lives along the tracks of the famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), also known as ‘Toy Train’? Over the course of the past few days, two photos involving the World Heritage Site have gon…
Azerbaijan in Eid: Top five things to do this festive season at the Pearl of the Caucasus
An Eastern city with a Western outlook, Baku is an exceptional combination of antiquity and novelty with several sites of interest. A constantly evolving tapestry of life and energy from bazaar to Jazz clubs, prepare to be mesmerised! For millennia, A…
Elephant Man’s ‘forgotten grave found’
Elephant Man: Joseph Merrick’s grave ‘found by author’ 5 May 2019 Image copyright PA Image caption Joseph Merrick surprised doctors with his intelligence and sensitive nature The unmarked grave of Joseph Merrick – who is better k…
Around The World In Kodachrome – A Nobel Laureate’s Outstanding Travel Photographs
“The visible image represents an invisible truth”– from a 10th century manuscript Grand Canyon, Arizona Martin Karplus (born March 15, 1930) is a chemist, Professor emeritus at Harvard University, and Nobel Laureate in 2013 who has spent the p…
Big Sky: Portraits from the Outback
Big Sky: Portraits from the Outback Adam Ferguson Though only amounting to a small percentage of the Australia’s population, the Outback is an important and diverse segment that defines the character of the country. These portraits attempt to build a …
1960s New York Street Life: James Jowers’ Snapshots of ‘Disorder and Imperfection’
Walking in the rain – photo by James Jowers, 1967. In the 1960s James Jowers left the US Army and studied photography at the New School for Social Research under Lisette Model. Model summed up her attitude to photography: “I am a passionate lover of…
Iran’s First Meteorite Exhibition Opens in Golestan Palace
The exhibition is organised by UNESCO’s Lut Desert World Heritage Centre in collaboration with Hojjat Kamali who is a record holder in discovery of meteorites and the only Iranian collector of meteorites. In this exhibition, the meteorite of Varamin, …
A birder s guide to the Galapagos
At a talk today, an ENT surgeon and avid birdwatcher will share her experience of visiting the South American islands that inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution Sea Lions As a child who grew up with a view of a giant banyan tree from her room, Dr …
Lithuania… Hidden arts of Vilnius – Independent.ie
An aerial view over Vilnius, capital of LithuaniaThe characteristically Byzantine spires of an orthodox church in the town of DruskininkaHilary catches his breath in VilniusDruskininkaiVilnius Old Town Lithuania… Hidden arts of Vilnius Independent…
The Streets of New York City – 1977-1978
Need help, 1976 – Manhattan, NY This is the second and final part of an album of black-and-white New York City photographs by Spanish photographer Manel Armengol. (If you want to see the city in colour, he’s those, too.) As Manel walked the streets …