It had been months since I had set out to photograph the dawn atop some interesting summit, and it was time. Montserrat, my go-to rock climbing destination these days, and not far from Barcelona, was an obvious choice. Would the morning light and the mountain mists cooperate?
If you are exploring the coast of Catalunya, north of Barcelona, this is a worthwhile stop. After all, it isn’t every day you get to wander the ruins of a small city founded almost six centuries before Christ. First, there were Iberian tribes, then the Greeks, then the Romans… come walk among their ghosts… and wonder what life might have been like during those distant times.
Can photographs made accidentally have the same value as images made on purpose? Can a photographed be infused with meaning after it is accidentally made?
This building is not on very many tourist bucket lists, I’m sure, but it is a really peaceful, green oasis in the midst of the pandemonium that is Barcelona if you happen to be strolling the area…
The project for the day… find and record an image which illustrates the idea of aloneness, or solitude, or loneliness…
Everyone thought Alfred Stieglitz was off his rocker when he started photographing nothing but clouds. “Maybe that’s where his head is floating,” someone surely must have commented at the time. But he did it to prove an artistic point and as an answer to a specific criticism…
Its potato salad conglomerate summits bulging toward the sky just 45 minutes outside of Barcelona, Montserrat is a strange geologic oddity. It is also home to the near-mythical Monastery of Montserrat and thus the spiritual aorta of Catalunya. It attracts pilgrims and tourists from all over the world by the thousands… in charter buses, by car, by bike, even walking long distances. Perhaps not as well advertised, though, is that it is also a mecca of sorts for another kind of pilgrim–rock climbers from all over the world. The climbing history is just as grand, colorful, controversial, and bold as could be found in any other major climbing mecca of the world… and some of that history can be seen as you climb–in the belay and rappel anchors, and in the fixed protection you might encounter… thus, this post.
Today sure seems like it could be quite the red letter date–masks no longer required around Spain, with public transport being the big exception. Can we now say that the pandemic is over? This collection of images of discarded masks sure make it look like it has all been left behind and forgotten…
What do you see when you look at those old, semi-abandoned billboards covered with the remains of old ads… billboards splattered with torn, ripped, and shredded scraps of paper? Or do you even bother looking at them at all?
There is so much information publicly available today about rock climbing these days it’s hard to know where to start. It certainly wasn’t that way “BITD”… back then, you usually latched on to a mentor and learned by following and watching someone more experienced… or you found a local climbing club who offered lessons… or both!
A number of friends have asked about where to go for reliable climbing info, thus this post.