The Waterloo Photography Collective presents a photographic collection contributed by students who have done co-op in Canada and abroad. As we all travel to new places, and those new journeys change us in return, we capture them in our mind and with our cameras, we capture what we discover. This post is a photo essay describing what each of us gained and were inspired by.
The pair of photos I chose do not come from Amsterdam, but rather from my travels of Europe at the time; specifically from the small but tall country of Switzerland. The pair reflect the stunning inspiration I experienced there – architecture and mountains. Both motifs were highly influential on my photography. The mountains made me feel insignificant yet curious, while the architecture empowered me to what we can achieve. But both can be felt as a similar mass. They obstruct our otherwise straightforward path and force us to go around, or to explore new opportunities, or to simply stare and wonder.
Nikola Miloradovic Co-op Location: Paul de Ruiter Architects, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Working long hours during the weekdays meant making the most of the weekends was paramount. This entailed late night trains that blended into early mornings and arriving in cities bleary eyed, but excited to explore the narrow streets. These photos were from one such weekend trip from Madrid to Seville, a city in southern Spain. In contrast to the overcast fall weather that had just begun to set over Madrid in mid-November, the south remained in a blissful state of summer. Of the cities that I had the good fortune of traveling to, Seville is unrivaled in it’s picturesque beauty. The greater part of the city is clad in a spectrum of Andalusian ceramic tiles and warm hues of masonry. I consider myself extremely lucky to have seen many breathtaking things during my work term. To view the city from the spiraling path up to the towers of the Catedral de Sevilla overlooking the court and it’s orangerie certainly ranks as the one of the highlights of an unforgettable four months.
Photo 1: This image was taken in Washington DC, where we visited during the american thanksgiving holidays. We went out looking for dinner one bitterly cold night and found this fishmarket. We spent the night sitting on the curb eating freshly steamed crabs until our fingers froze off.
Photo 2: This is our beloved little kitchen in our apartment in New York. This was taken one lovely Saturday as we made breakfast at noon after sleeping in.
Fiona Lu Co-op Location: Studio V, New York, New York
I think what I remember most about my time in Taiwan, aside from the amazing food, people, and culture, is the humidity. It was the first thing I noticed stepping off the plane, so it was my very first impression of the country. However my second best memory of Taiwan was the first time I took the train out of Taipei to Hualien and hiked up and down the mountains in Taroko Gorge. I hated it. I was tired, sweaty, and just hated climbing up the trails. But, predictably, at the top, I forgot everything I had felt climbing up and just looked out in awe at the landscape. Nestled in the peak across from ours was a temple that poked itself out from the trees. And then I climbed down.
I had created a blog for my time in Taipei where I posted a photo for each day I was there. It includes some from my time in Japan too. http://oneadaytaipei.tumblr.com
Emily Guo Co-op Location: Artech Architects, Taipei, Taiwan
Rome was such a beautiful city. These photos don’t really do it justice, but they describe the most memorable places to me. The architecture in Rome is stunning, and the scale of everything is far beyond what most cities tend to be. I loved walking through busy streets in Rome and then overlooking the city scape from parks much higher above (my favourite spots were Parco Savello, Borghese gardens and Gianicolo hill). I also saw some of the best museums and artwork in Rome too. The artwork coupled with the lavish architecture made it even more elegant. And after every day of work I would walk along the Tiber River to get to my apartment in Trestevere; that view will always be on my mind when I think of Rome.
Marisa Musing Co-op Location: Scape, Rome, Italy
Being close to nature is what is best about Vancouver. At any given time, you can find yourself in the middle of a bustling city, and the next day you are in complete wilderness, and isolation.
Symon Tiansay Co-op Location: James KM Cheng Architects, Vancouver, British Columbia
“New York is intensity”
Jim Shi Co-op Location: HWKN, New York, New York
Although cliché, it was the café life that was so consuming and memorable in Paris. I think it’s a matter of learning to take coffee on your own, sit at a table with your book or sketch paper or cigarettes and consume the atmosphere for hours. People watching, self watching. Café life where people sit alone brings both a joy and a sadness. As I learnt to cope with who I was in solitude, Paris let me fall in love with it. I felt it most strongly as I sat on the plastic wicker chairs in the café down the street from my flat. To quote Ernst Hemingway, “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris [when you are young], then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”
Piper Bernbaum Co-op Location: Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Paris, France
This is a still place,
A solemn place,
A place for the solemn to find solice, \
And a prison for those wont of wandering.
Logan Steele Co-op Location: Allan Avis Architects, Goderich, Ontario
“Here you go”
Mack Phillips Co-op Location: Taylor Hazel, Toronto, Ontario
The city is setting up lighting and colors, everyday new, a theatre where everyone is an actor and every wall is a backdrop, every cloud is acting above, Venetian labyrinths draw you into a different dimension as soon as you cross the bridge from the main land to the islands…Walking between the narrow brick walls and wider piazzas, city puts a new face on every day, a new mask; it changes colors, like watercolor washes, unravelling new hidden walkways, churches and hidden gardens, makes one get lost. Paradoxically at the same time it is uncertain whether you get lost or found, the water blurs the division and you share the maze between your mind and the city. Just like a musical sheet played by the turquoise of Mediterranean, frayed at the edges, where the mullioned curvy windows are gazing silently listening to the church bells singing, every thought that passes through your mind also seems to belong to this orchestrated city, tied to it’s keys. Like Joseph Brodsky wrote about it “The only thing that could beat this city of water would be a city built in the air…” I thought of that a lot looking at San Marco and San Giorgio while walking to work at the Giardini and it will always stay with me.
Valeria Nuyanzina Co-op Location: Venice Biennale – Canada Pavilion , Venice, Italy
(somehow) I persuaded my parents to loan me the family minivan for a 3500 kilometer adventure to a side of Canada I had never seen before. This journey took me from my home of Kitchener, Ontario; north to the boreals of the province, a sublime rocky landscape cut in sections by the orange dashes of the long, lonely highway; across the province of Manitoba, “the heart of the continent”; through the awe-inspiring flatness of Saskatchewan, “the land of the living sky,” that presents a view of rainstorms hours away from you over the sea of wheats and grasses; and finally to the city of Calgary, Alberta, with the promise of adventure looming on the western horizon. Luckily, I was able to wander from my temporary home (thanks to the procuring of the aforementioned vehicle) to see some of the most surreal places in Canada. On one of my many weekend trips into the mountains I, and a good friend who drove down from Edmonton, took the 93 North, up through Banff National Park on our way to Jasper; a five hour drive along the most scenic roadway in all of Canada. We made the split decision to stop at a place called the Columbia Icefields and pulled onto a dirt path that led to a small parking lot. Over the first small hill the field opened up to a flatland of sharp rocks and ice, with massive glaciers and mountains gating the perimeter. One of these glaciers had an ice cave at its base which was the most unbelievable deep blue, unlike anything I had seen before – I had to touch it. As we got a little closer we realised just how big this cave was, about 50 feet high, and surrounded by a small body of frigid water and half melted ice blocks. I, committed to my plan, started jumping from floating ice block to floating ice block, determined to touch this dark blue ice. Just as I was to make the jump to the next block I stepped on some ice that was thinner than I expected and fell straight through. Quickly throwing all my body weight forward I got a hold on the ice, and was able to pull myself back up to safety. A little shaken up I decided to jump back to the mainland. The 45 minute hike back was long and windy, I was half expecting my legs to just fall off. We made it back to the van, blasted the heat and continued on to Jasper with shaking legs and a little more respect for the wilderness we’ve been wayfaring.
Zaven Titizian Co-op location: Studio North, Calgary, Alberta
The Edge of the World
I’ve seen the Atlantic from the North American coast on multiple occasions; this was the first time I’ve experienced the same ocean from the other side. Here’s a selection of some of my favourite moments staring manifested through two very different landscapes. One was taken on a pleasant day in Dingle, Ireland, the other was taken during a sandstorm in Monster, The Netherlands.
Tomas Mashidlauskas Co-op Location: Atelier Pro, Den Haag, Netherlands
Miami. Ocean. Adventure
Justin Jones Co-op Location: Arquitectonica, Miami, Florida
Prianka Smita Masters Thesis Research Location: Shakhari Bazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh
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