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Culture & tradition,  Lens-Artists,  Themed galleries

Gallery: every picture tells a story

April 28, 2024 / 60 Comments

Every picture tells a story

Rod Stewart

While I hope I can say of many of my photos that it ‘tells a story’, I have chosen that title for this particular gallery for a reason. As a song (and album) title, it fits perfectly with my theme, mixing images with music.

You see, for this week’s Lens Artists challenge Egídio would like ‘to hear the music you make when you photograph’. So I’ve chosen some images from my archives that I believe illustrate song titles. In some cases I started with the song and looked for a photo, in others I spotted a photo that reminded me of a song.

And for a bit of fun, I’ve not mentioned those titles in my captions so that you can play a guessing game. Many will be pretty obvious, but a few are less so. If you’re stuck, I’ve included the answers below the gallery.

My feature photo was taken in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It’s not intended to illustrate a particular song title, just evoke the overall theme of music!

Man sitting on a chair on a pavement by a wall with graffiti

1. In Shoreditch, east London

Girl sitting on a stone jetty with boats moored offshore

2. Lakeside in Puerto Varas, Chile

Wooden hotel sign beneath a window

3. In Laguna Beach, California (from an old slide taken in 1991)

Large sign with Pie Town written above a painting of mountains and pies

4. Sign entering Pie Town, New Mexico

Man standing in the shallows holding a surfboard

5. Surfer on the beach at Cape May, New Jersey

Winding road in a barren hilly landscape

6. Road through the Atacama Desert, Chile

View of a scrubby landscape with cacti, taken from a car window

7. On the road from La Paz to Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Girl leaning out of a car window

8. In Tirana, Albania

Selectively coloured pink car

9. In the Route 66 museum in Santa Rosa, New Mexico

Looking out from a cave at a hillside with rocks and pine trees

10. At the Gila Cliff Dwellings, New Mexico, once home to the Mogollon people

Large tombstone engraved with the names of three men

11. The grave of William H. Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, and two of his ‘pals’, near Fort Sumner, New Mexico

Pink roses scattered on the ground

12. Freshly picked at a rose farm in Bulgaria

Giraffe on the horizon with a dramatic sky

13. In Chobe National Park, Botswana

The answers

Here are the answers, for those of you playing the guessing game. How many did you get right?! I’ve included links to YouTube videos in case you don’t know any of the songs, or would like to hear them again.

  1. Streets of London by Ralph McTell

2. (Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding

3. Hotel California by the Eagles

4. American Pie by Don McLean

5. Surfin’ USA by the Beach Boys

6. The Long and Winding Road by the Beatles

7. On the Road Again by Canned Heat

8. The Passenger by Iggy Pop

9. Pink Cadillac by Bruce Springsteen

10. The Cave by Mumford and Sons

11. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door by Bob Dylan

12. For the Roses by Joni Mitchell

13. Under African Skies by Paul Simon

60 Comments

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