Three weeks ago today my partner and I left for Europe. First the UK and then France, Switzerland and France again. This was one of the those rare times when our the work needs overlapped. She to present a talk in Paris and do some research on a Thai-Lao Buddhist scroll and festival which took her to Oxford, and the two of use to Zurich and Dinan in the Brittany area of France. I needed to attend a memorial for a reporter friend and talk with a few trusted friends about the homeless project I’ve been working on for the last few years. Your basic destination travel.

For a large part of the last 44 years I have been a destination traveler, sent someplace to cover something. However I am a wonderer by nature. I prefer to dispense with all but the most rudimentary of of destinations. My goal, to get lost, or at least as lost as someone with credit cards and a line of credit can get.

It has been a year and half since I was back in England and France. Switzerland probably close to two decades. There were many changes, the UK is being torn apart by Brexit for example, and many things are the same. But as a wonderer what really caught me aback was the ubiquitous use of the cell phone and Google Maps. So many people standing around, or walking, staring down at the phone in their hand trying to figure out where they were and where their destination had gone. People standing in one place turning around and round trying to figure out the map and where they are is a very funny thing to watch. Of course most don’t realise not only how much of the world they are missing but that that day’s maps are influenced by what searches they have been performing. And that the eatery they are now contemplating because it appears on the Google rout is appearing because it paid to be there. Different interests produce different routs with different suggested destinations.

But enough of that – I am a photographer and I tried to wonder as much as possible on this trip, talk to folks that I met and see what I saw. So today on the Stansbury Forum a few images from around Europe.

London and Bideford

 

 

 

 

As with so many towns around the world the UK is dealing with a shortage of affordable housing while in the midst of a construction boom.

 

 

In 2012 London stages the Olympics. It seems almost traditional now for countries/towns hosting the Olympics to do massive teardown and buildups of what usually become derelict structures once the games leave town. So far London has avoided this fate. The Stratford transit center serves a growing community of upscale residents and the more established community of Leyton. The stadiums have remained open and used including the local football club, swimmers and bikers.

 

Homelessness in London is on the rise. While nowhere near as visible as in San Francisco there are many sleeping rough and panhandling. In my very unscientific survey the streets seem pretty free of discarded needles and human waste. This is a town not much better at providing public toilets than San Francisco and the toilets in the train stations cost 50p

Paris

 

Street art in Paris seems to be viewed as an asset instead of an eyesore. At one point a couple was walking down a small street with their very young child pointing out the different styles and doing portraits of little girl standing in front a number of them.

 

 

 

 

Zurich

 

 

 

 

Zurich is amorphous for me but the last night we were there I began to think I know what I would photograph here if I came back.   There are a whole lot of “big dick” guys in expensive suits and hair cuts with a posture that says I am a king of the the world.  And then, of course, there are the muscle cars – American, German, Italian – lots of roar and quick starts and stops but not much speed as everyone here seems to be studiously obeying the public laws.  In banking I would have my doubts.

Paris and Dinan

 

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