For several years I photographed roundabouts in France. Each town has at least one as you enter and what ever is on the roundabout will very often give you an indication of what the town is about. For example entering a fishing village a fishing boat maybe on the roundabout. A large statue of a boy with an oyster before the town where oysters are farmed. Roman ruins, wild animals, grapevines, you get the picture? The other day I spotted this roundabout in Holborn. I couldn't help myself, I raced across the traffic on to the roundabout and took this picture. I'm not sure what it is or what it indicates. However the urge to photograph roundabouts came flooding back. Do I need to to travel around the UK photographing roundabouts? Are there lots here too? I thought it was a French thing. Maybe not.
Friday, 19 August 2011
Roundabout
For several years I photographed roundabouts in France. Each town has at least one as you enter and what ever is on the roundabout will very often give you an indication of what the town is about. For example entering a fishing village a fishing boat maybe on the roundabout. A large statue of a boy with an oyster before the town where oysters are farmed. Roman ruins, wild animals, grapevines, you get the picture? The other day I spotted this roundabout in Holborn. I couldn't help myself, I raced across the traffic on to the roundabout and took this picture. I'm not sure what it is or what it indicates. However the urge to photograph roundabouts came flooding back. Do I need to to travel around the UK photographing roundabouts? Are there lots here too? I thought it was a French thing. Maybe not.
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13 comments:
Just don't go to Milton Keynes!
It would be quite interesting if you really follow your urge to catch more roundabouts wherever they are...
This one is really original.
it indicates..the end of the world as we know it
Roundabouts are not common in Canada at all, or if we do have them, they're huge things with overpasses and underpasses so you don't even know you're on a roundabout! They therefore confuse the heck out of me when I do come across them, usually in the States!
This one is very interesting!
Despite being a British invention and therefore having as long as anywhere to be elevated to an art form, the roundabout's development in the UK seems to have stopped at the purely functional level. I remember the roundabouts of my childhood being locations for colourful flower beds: now council budgets seem to demand their use for sponsorship by local companies. One roundabout I immediately associate with the French way of doing things is the giant cockerel at Dorking's Deepdene roundabout: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/582787 (background info here: http://surrey.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/the-dorking-cockerel-has-landed-16997/)
And if you want real chickens there is this in Norfolk: http://www.chickenroundabout.co.uk/
In London (and I imagine you have already photographed this), there is the Traffic Light Tree near Heron Quay, Docklands, which might be an indicator of what the town is about as one drives towards central London. This latter piece of roundabout art is by French sculptor Pierre Vivant, so perhaps it is a French thing.
It certainly is an interesting object whatever it is supposed to represent.
It doesn't look very prepossessing!
I seem to find a lot of roundabouts when I am in England. Add roundabout navigation to driving on the "wrong" side of the road, and it can be more exciting than I like. I am always happy to reach my destination and leave the car.
it's the driver of your car that I feel sorry for - the one presumably being called on to stop suddenly in heavy traffic when you spot a roundabout worthy of a picture or being asked to drive slowly around the roundabout 50 times till the light and angle are right for the shot
Too many darn roundabouts for my taste.
Whatever 'floats your boat', as they say in California.
It looks like a rusty bolt, with the thread upwards. For the sake of delicacy, I will surmise no further.
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