European street lights, symbols of history

For me when I think of something symbolic from my photos, I think of European street lights. In Melbourne our street lights are mediocre and frankly quite ugly – alien looking in fact. There seems there was minimal thought put into their design, simply functional lights on the street.

In recent blog post I read about the comparison of streets in western society versus eastern. In the streets of the east community and life takes place, and the streets of the west serve simply as infrastructure – simply a road to get you from A to B.

I think our street lights sum this up – functional without design. When I’m in Europe though I feel that the beauty and history of the street lamps brings a different perspective to the street scape. Not only are the streets for getting to point B, but they are also full of a rich and wonderful history. Symbols of something greater than what the eye can see.

Recently on my blog a ran a series on street lights I have snapped during my European travel: Light em up – A series of street lamps part 1 and part 2.

Light ’em up – A series of street lamps part 2 – Italy

You can tell a lot about a city by its street lamps. After reviewing my photo archive I realised that I have many photos of street lamps, some where the lamp is the feature and some where a street lamp has snuck into my shot – and in some cases snuck in and become the main attraction.

Also see part one – photos from Spain and France.

Light ’em up – A series of street lamps Part 1

You can tell a lot about a city by its street lamps. After reviewing my photo archive I realised that I have many photos of street lamps, some where the lamp is the feature and some where a street lamp has snuck into my shot – and in some cases snuck in and become the main attraction.

Part one photos are from Spain and France and one from a day trip to Germany – see if you can find it, hint it was raining.

Click thumbnail for full image.