the BackStory to:   Van Gogh Baby Buggy BootWalker Blow-by*Amsterdam, Holland -- 2008

                I love old Dutch things.

               On this year's regular streetphoto stop in Amsterdam I particularly loved focusing in on Amsterdam charisma and European sophistication juxtaposed against and amid old Dutch things.

               Here in my effort to compose Winter BootWalkers of Amsterdam -- I've used a (Jaardan) neighborhood mural of old Dutch master artist and notorious Amsterdamer Vincent van Gogh and a lone Amsterdammertje (roughly pronounced Amsterdam-mer-gee). Those are the notorious phallic-shaped Amsterdam traffic posts emblazoned with the symbol of the city, a simple stacked triple X.

      I love to put Old Dutch Things in my Amsterdam streetphotos. That way my compositions automatically express place -- as I then use patience and anticipation and the perfect moment to add a story depending on what elements serendipitously come into the scene in my time at that spot, which I then choose to add to the Old Dutch under painting as a narrative point, choosing how to arrange the converging characters in time to highlight each street element as a crucial focal aspect of the overall work.

            The theme is subtle, if not just simple (less is more).  A modern Dutch mother flowing through old Amsterdam, she and her daughter and van Gogh -- all three (despite the blooming flowers) bundled against the cold wind.

                      In this street photo there are three leading actors:
                              1-Old Dutch -- Vincent van Gogh
                              2-New European Sheik Dutch -- Red      
                                       Baby Buggy BootWalker in Black Heels
                              3-Old Amsterdam -- Amsterdammertje (Traffic Post)

                     And there are four additional supporting actors:  
                              1-Dutch -- Flowers (van Gogh Flowers)
                              2-New -- Baby
                              3-Old -- Brick Sidewalk
                              4-New -- Yellow-painted Door (& mural)

             By working this way sometimes -- stalking a theme and adding a final stanza -- I get the old, I get the Dutch, I get the Amsterdam, and I get (from the BootWalker's fashions) the fact that this photograph was made in the early part of the 21st century.

            Aside from the intellectually stimulating parts, I also like the visually bold actors in this streetphoto: The XXX; The primary colors red, yellow, blue and green; The triangulated three-wheel buggy (circles) amid the many rectangular bricks and several rectangular doorways and windows and door vents; Vincent van Gogh's hat and camera-aware (or child-aware?) eyes and his hand that reaches out toward the viewer; And I also like the way the strap hanging off the Bootwalker's shoulder bag flutters in the winter wind as the new Baby Buggy BootWalker motors down the ancient sidewalk past the old Amsterdam artist .
 

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