20 Jan 2011

Trains and windows

I am sure that I am not alone in enjoying, in that distanced, semi-detached way that the situation often induces, looking out of train windows. The beauty or otherwise of the landscapes, the variable speeds at which these develop in front of you in a kind of cinemascope/kaleidoscope, the notion of speed being accentuated by the stroboscopic effects engendered by lighting that flashes and fades as alternately obscured and then revealed by objects near the train.

There is also the fact that you are in the landscape and yet clearly separated from it, the constantly changing perspectives, alternately closing in then moving back and out. All this, plus the reverie sensations that the movement of a train so often induces (just look at how many people go to sleep in trains!).

Here is a short series of photographs I took recently through a train window, travelling through Burgundy under the snow. Might try this again sometime.


4 comments:

  1. You forget to mention two side-effects of this “out of train windows watching”:
    (i) it can (and does) elicit epileptic fits (through the so-called strobo-effect)
    (ii) it causes hilarity in the cows population

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  2. Vache folle et tremblante du mouton : l'enquête se poursuit.

    Le résultat est saisissant !

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  3. If I may : « Prion(s) que cela ne se reproduise plus ». Never again.

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