Tag Archives: orient express

More darkroom accidents – The Orient Express – Innsbruck

Here are a few more images that accidently got solorised in the darkroom.

Some of those above look like they have been created by a pinhole camera. The one below was…

The pinhole camera used to take this photograph in Havanna in 1999 was handmade by the photographer(?) for the purpose of taking photos of tourists. In its simplest form, the photographic pinhole camera consists of a light-tight box with a pinhole in one end, and a piece of film or photographic paper wedged or taped into the other end. A flap of cardboard with a tape hinge can be used as a shutter. The pinhole is usually punched or drilled using a sewing needle or small diameter bit through a piece of tinfoil or thin aluminum or brass sheet. This piece is then taped to the inside of the light tight box behind a hole cut through the box. A cardboard box can be made into an excellent pinhole camera.

 

Traveling with René Lalique

I have never really been fond of artworks that are made in glass – I’m not a craft type of person but…

I suppose there are some artists who successfully worked with glass, maybe René Lalique is one of them?

Lalique Art Deco glasswork on the Orient Express

The image above was taken on The Orient Express

Dining Car 4141 named ‘Côte d’Azur’ was built in 1929 as a first class Pullman and was decorated by René Lalique who in the 1920s became famous for his Art Deco glass work. He was also responsible for the glass and elegant coloured columns which filled the dining room and “grand salon” of the SS Normandie and the interior fittings, cross, screens, reredos and font of St. Matthew’s Church at Millbrook in Jersey – referred to as “Lalique’s Glass Church”.

Contemporary Art Sale I am actually sinking deeper and deeper into poverty so if you can help me keep a roof over my head please make an offer for this painting here. La Belle et La Bête Original painting by Peter Bright . … Continue reading ?

Sleeping Car 3539 – Orient Express – Art Deco Washbasin

Sometimes less is more. Art and design that gets straight to the point tends to be more successful than objects or things that are jam packed with irrelevant nonsense. It is far better to pack a killer punch by saying exactly what you mean in the simplest way. Everything you need should be straight in front of you – to understand its function or meaning – tight and compact.

Great real world examples are the 1929 sleeper compartments on the Orient Express.  Each cabin has an original washbasin cabinet, having  hot and cold running water – there is a little storage, mirrors and places to stuff your toiletries, all confined into a space smaller than a single wardrobe – economy of space and design.

Interior of Orient Express – image gallery

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is a private luxury train service that travels from London to Venice. Traveling on the Orient Express across Europe is a romantic, nostalgic and luxurious experience.

The craftsmanship that went into creating the original carriages would be very difficult to replicate – inlaid wood, frosted glass reliefs and chromed fittings. These wonderfully engineered pieces of railway rolling stock date back to the 1920s and 1930s. The whole ensemble oozes history.

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

The original company was founded by James Sherwood of Kentucky, USA, in 1982; five years earlier, in 1977, he had bought two of the original carriages at auction when the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits withdrew from the Orient Express service, passing the service on to the national railways of France, Germany, and Austria. Over the next few years, Sherwood spent a total of $16 million purchasing 35 sleeper, restaurant and Pullman carriages. On 25 May 1982, the first London-Venice run was made.

It is currently owned by Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. The company owns 50 luxury hotels, restaurants, tourist trains and river cruises in 24 countries.