The Artful Engineer

You didn’t think that I wouldn’t get around to doors, did you? I enjoy photographing interesting doors anywhere, and Rome is no exception. The image above is typical of the warm, weathered look of streets in Rome. I love the colors and textures.

The flower shop door, next, lacks the warm colors of the previous image, but the door itself is interesting. Given that this image was made at almost 11 AM, this shop may well be defunct and boarded up from the inside.

Perhaps I should have called this next image “Study in Studliness.”

This next door (and the surrounding wall) look decidedly grungy, with bits of stickers and a little graffiti. It looks like maybe there used to be a drainpipe next to the door, but now there is just a mildewy smear down the wall. The green goes well with the door, though. I like the composition of this image a lot, including the small squares and rectangles scattered around the frame, even though the subject itself can hardly be called beautiful.

Compositionally, there’s not much beyond symmetry to this next image, but the overall color palette is nice. The texture of the door hints at a long story—why is the lower part of the door so very worn?

Just so you don’t think that all the doors in Rome are grungy, I’ll throw in this beauty. The wood is spectacular, of course, but it is Medusa’s face that draws my eye. She looks so filled with despair—a once-beautiful woman unfairly cursed by Athena, represented here by the owl. Short of a statement about severe marital struggles, I’m not sure why you would put this on your door, but it is definitely well-executed.

I hope you enjoyed a few of the doors I found wandering the streets of Rome. Next week—you guessed it—will be windows!

Don’t forget to take a peek at the home page: I usually have a bonus image there that is related to the week’s post.