Photo of the Week

Week Twenty-One

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i

Lens: 24mm Prime

Focal Length: 24mm

F-Stop: 4.5

Exposure: 1/100

Image Title: White Neon

Location: Salzburg, Austria

I can’t say that this is one of the best photos I have ever taken, or that it is one of the most artistic, but something about it makes me love it. First off, I love neon signs, I think there’s something so artistic about them, and the white color makes it more elegant and minimalist. I also love dusky city pictures. I love the grey and the color of evening light, how everything is covered in a dull blue.

But I think realizing what this represented means more than the actual photo.

This glass box is located on the end of  one of the several bridges in the main part of Salzburg, Austria. (I’m going to talk more about Salzburg in the next long post I write) There were neon boxes like this at both ends of the bridge, and a memorial plaque on one end read that the bridge had been built by forced labor during WWII. The glass signs were a memorial to those laborers who were force to build the bridge against their will.

I am always stunned at how monuments to something so terrible can turn out so beautiful. Something about memorials always strikes me with this quiet reflection and brings me so much realization about my freedom and my privilege in life. I hope that we can stop creating memorials to horrible things, but while we have to, I hope they continue to be beautiful.