34 Comments

Those beautiful images - those unique doors! - do make me happy just looking at them. Thank you for sharing.

Expand full comment

I just hung six interior doors at my sisters. I like hanging doors. There is some art to it, and it is a metaphor. I hung all six before I realized, these are not the solid wood frames my sister ordered, they are cheap trash composite. I will make it work, but really? This was a custom order. (My mistake too, a little out of practice contracting.)

Then we opened the bi-fold closet door boxes. Compressed MDF, sawdust compressed and glued. Two of the first three were too damaged to install. Didn't bother opening the other four.

They sent the wrong trim. The sent the doors a day early, we weren't ready. They didn't send all the doors.

Thanks for a beautiful reminder of a time when people truly cared about the built environment. Stunning, compared.

Expand full comment

The State of The Industry now…poor quality, high prices, poor supply chain fulfillment..,I was in the construction design field for 40 plus years. The industry has always been plagued with delivery issues. I wouldn’t want to be dealing with it now.

Expand full comment

I got out of the business because I have a hard time reconciling installing trash. With every passing year the product is more expensive and of less quality. Planned obsolescence has been reduced from 10 to 1-3 years. Compare the same product from three years ago with the one made today and you can see the difference, the way it has been engineered to be less effective, strong or lasting. It is all consumer products. I just bought the same North Face tent I had, but a three person instead of two, and the new material is like the plastic in the dishwasher that never dries not even when you try to dry it with a towel, and you can't open the vestibules without the zippers getting caught especially when it is wet.

This has no future.

Expand full comment

Yes I agree…The quality of goods today are nothing like they were even a few years ago. 😣

Expand full comment

Pictured Words

Of Dual Harmony,

Bear Witness

To Arched Revelry.

Wood & Metal

& Hinged Swinging,

Colour The Vast

Openings.

Brick Path & Stoned

Walk-Way Bound

Carry The Soul

To Be Found.

Arching & Squaring

Rectangular To Sound

MedalLioned On Bridge

Ports, Under Tree. Mounds.

Open & Closed

In Time's InterPosed

Brings One To Mind

Of Treasure To Find...

Expand full comment

Beautiful, Paul.

Expand full comment

Beauty SEES Beauty.

Expand full comment

:-) What a wonderful response!

Expand full comment

The Wonder

Is ALL Yours !

GodSpeed.

Expand full comment

2 DOORS OF ENTRY

There is a type of Ancient door opening, that most are already familiar.

Perhaps, some more often, having walked through them, during days & times, long past.

I believe the first, is associated with possibly modern day Turkey or past Persian & Moorish past.

Lapis Lazuli Sears

Its Azured Sky,

Bejeweled Gem...

Within Gleaming Eyes.

This doorway, has no narrow way, but rather a concaved contour, toward passing passenger, hip high. And beast of burden.

These contours allow smooth entry of goods & wares, packed upon the beasts, riding sides.

*

NOW, for the other.

"Blessed are the poor

For they shall inherit The Earth

One is better to be poor

Than a fat man

In the Eye of a Needle

As these words were spoken

I swear I hear the old man laughing

What good is a used up world,

And how could it be worth having?

~ Sting

{All This Time, Versed, but Chapterless}

Now, IMAGINE, a poor countryside peopled by meager means, with a few animals for milk, hair, & meat. And companionship, I imagine.

They are friendly to one another, tho' to reduce the confusion & fuss, of animals gone wanderlust, they build rudimentary fencing, "composed" of standing sticks.

Let's imagine about three feet high.

But...

To distinguish The People's Gate, for walk way through, let's make the two side jambs seven feet high, vertical sticks, pointing Blue Sky Hue.

NOW...

Let's take those two tall tree limbs & join them in central fare & fair. Tie a knot, if you will.

NOW AGAIN,

STEP BACK

AND PERUSE

THE FINAL BUILDING SCENE...

And there,

In Air,

All too bare...

IS THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE.

Expand full comment

I love looking at these and wondering about all the people who passed through them and what their "stories" are/were.

Expand full comment

Stunning! They’re like a long, sweet sigh of relief. Thank you for sharing, Celia.

Expand full comment

Coffe table book?

Expand full comment

Oh Celia, how you stir up the wanderlust in me!

Expand full comment

Good collection... it's worthy of a photo project. And what a variety! The common element in the doors is they're all substantial, all secure. You're a talented writer and since the wedding we've found out you're pretty handy with a camera, too. ••• I hope to read your finished article on Paris Hilton. You provided a link to her documentary trailer/teaser, which I watched with fascination. I had no idea she is a "reform school" survivor. The media has always portrayed Paris as a shallow and aimless rich girl. What a lie that turned out to be. And your latest questions about the Anne Heche car crash are intriguing. As you learn more about Heche, I hope you'll share it with us. I'm an old Boomer whose bullshit shield has been up since the Gulf of Tonkin.

Expand full comment

For whatever reason, I've never had much interest in visiting "Europe". But your door photos have touched me in a surprising way. This might be the first time I've *felt* the culture and history that other acquaintances have spoken of and tried to convey.

Expand full comment

Love it! The creativity, the time spent, the craftsmanship, the precision, the pride. File under ‘the little yet amazing things most often taken for granted’

P.S- I’m all for the coffee table book 🙂👍

Expand full comment

Thank you Celia for sharing Andalucia. I’ve always loved doors, especially the carved wood. These are so beautiful. It also warms my heart knowing you are filling up your soul ~ and ours🙏

Expand full comment

Knock, knock! 👋

Expand full comment

hey should we all tell knock knock jokes. We need Doug Feldmann. Doug? You there?

Expand full comment

Thank you for posting to show and remind us of other places, history and ways that are older, deeper, stronger and more lasting than whatever is ever changing in any present time.

Expand full comment

My salutation in my previous letter was very presumtive in calling you my friend, and I am sorry if I mispoke and offended you. I guess after reading and agreeing with so much of what you post, I just consider you as a friend.

Expand full comment

No! Not offended at all!!! I am honored to be called your friend. I sometimes miss things, did I miss a reply? I will catch up. :)

Expand full comment

My friend Celia, thank you very much for these photos. I appreciate European architechture and the fact that Europeans also appreciate it by letting their old edifices stand instead of tearing them down at a certain age as is done in North America. I have not been to the Orient, but I suspect that they also preserve most of their old buildings.

Expand full comment

Yes, there is a big story in all of this. The demolition. They did it for a reason that was not merely obsession with progress.

Expand full comment