0 The City of Samba – Cidade Maravilhosa

The City of Samba video - Tilt shift photography of Rio de Janeiro during Carnival (2011), from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XboAeIjcs2E

This is about the spirit of a place, and the place is Cidade Maravilhosa, the Marvelous City, Rio de Janeiro at Carnival time. Done using time lapse, tilt shift photography, the video gives a good general overview of the city of Rio de Janeiro – you know, all the typical sites and sights - the fabulous white sand beaches, the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer with outstretched arms presiding over the city, cable cars ascending Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar), etc.  Then the second half of the video focuses on what Rio is most famous for – Carnival!  So even though we missed posting this on Mardi Gras itself, it is still very enjoyable to watch. 

I found the segment dealing with the parade very spectacular, of course, but very different than what I thought I knew Carnival to be, as obtained primarily from seeing how Carnival is depicted in the movies, such as one of my all-time favorites, Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), and of course, James Bond’s Moonraker, with its famous (and nerve-racking!) Carnival parade sequence. 

The depiction of Carnival in this video The City of Samba (and it may just have something to do with the nature of the tilt shift photographic technique itself) seems very mechanistic, everybody moving with military-like precision.  The floats are HUGE!  Of course, it would have helped if the video used actual samba music as a soundtrack instead of that ethereal/frenetic stuff that’s playing on there in the background.  But it’s still pretty spectacular. 

Thanks to the Brazilian blog-meister of Urban Demographics, for posting the video.  Tilt shift never fails to amaze, and when the place that’s captured is amazing to begin with, well, what more can one say.  Fabulocity!  Cidade Maravilhosa, indeed! 

Detail: The City of Samba – Cidade Maravilhosa

0 Le Flâneur

Le Flâneur

A project by Luke Shepard, a student at The American University of Paris.  Composed completely of photographs.  Location: Paris, France; Camera: Nikon D90; Music: Intro by The XX (thexx.info).   Thanks to Urban Demographics for posting this video.                                                                                                   Le Flâneur – what is a Flâneur, anyway?  Le Flâneur is a term normally ascribed to a male stroller who gathers a reading of urban space through arbitrary exploration; the Flâneur figure as a contemplator of urban space.  In French, the word means “stroller,” “loiterer,” “lounger,” “loafer,” or “saunterer.”  There really is no direct English translation.  Charles Baudelaire developed a derived meaning of flâneur—that of “a person who walks the city in order to experience it.” 

Baudelaire's aesthetic and critical visions helped open up the modern city as a space for investigation, while other theorists codified the urban experience in more sociological and psychological terms.  In his essay “The Metropolis and Mental Life,” Georg Simmel theorizes that the complexities of the modern city create new social bonds and new attitudes towards others.  The modern city was transforming humans, giving them a new relationship to time and space, inculcating in them a “blasé attitude,” and altering fundamental notions of freedom and being. 
         One of the reasons the concept of Flâneur-ism is typically associated with men is that until quite recently women did not have the ability to wander safely and unaccompanied and anonymously through the city, and go wherever they pleased.  Many areas were off-limits to women, for one reason or another.  Therefore, le Flâneur was almost always a male, since being able to move through the city anonymously and without attracting undue attention is one of the pre-requisites, in fact it is the hallmark, of Flâneur-ity.  It is also the reason why, throughout time, certain bold women have decided to masquerade as men, to have access to that type of urban observer anonymity and jettison all the restrictions that normally devolved upon their gender. 

So, we have here, for your viewing pleasure, a couple of time lapse videos.  The first one (above) is of Paris, the original home of the Flâneur, and the second one (below) is of New York City.  These are two of the greatest cities in the world, the first the cultural capital of the world in the 19^th century, and the second the cultural capital of the world in the 20^th century. 

Time Lapse Photography of Brooklyn & Manhattan, New York City (with 9/11 tribute)  All production: Tal Kagan; Blueglaze LLC (blueglaze.com)

Music: Adele - Hometown Glory (Chewy Chocolate Cookies Remix)

Time Lapse of NYC 1812-2013

I couldn’t resist adding in a third time lapse video, this one a model of the built environment of New York City, 1812-2013.  Music by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind. 

OK, based on a reader's comment below, I have added a FOURTH video, this one is not time lapse, but the tilt shift technique, NYC in miniature. For details on how this technique works and an interview with the artist, see:  

http://aerofilm.blogspot.com/2010/02/sandpit-short-film-by-aero-director-sam.html

Thanks, Amy Trexler, for sending us the link to the Sand Pit a couple of years ago, and thanks, Joanneseale, for bringing it to our attention again! 

Detail: Le Flâneur