Picture of the Week #201 "Paris Fog"  Paris, France 1970 Signed and Stamped

Look closely and you'll see the Eiffel Tower. In the actual print of this image it's even harder to see. But the yellow Citroen and what I think is a Renault in front bookend the striking tower. I have had this 35mm transparency sitting in my files but never forgot it. FInally I was able to clean the slide up and make a beautiful 13" X 19" print on semi gloss paper. There's something mysterious yet compelling in this cold, heavily overcast day in the City of Lights.

Picture of the Week #200 "Arrezzo Stride" Arrezzo, Italy 1989 Signed and Stamped

When I had rented a villa in Loro Cuiffena in Tuscany, I would often bicycle over to Arrezzo for the antique market, and the vitality of that incredible city, as well as lunch in this incredible square. One day when the town was quiet I caught this image. Recently my friend Simon Gales a wonderful artist saw this image on my website and gave it such praise that I had to post it as a Picture of the Week to celebrate the 200th posting. Thank you Simon.

Picture of the Week #199 "Bread" Paris, France 1998 Signed and Stamped

When I first saw these baguettes wrapped and laying side by side, for some unknown and very dark reason I thought of the poor people scrunched together in wooden beds in concentration camps. I don't know why I thought that as I usually see the bright side.

Picture of the Week #198 "Portuguese Fish Mongers" Lisbon, Portugal 1965 Signed and Stamped

Some people might recognize this image as I had made a painting from this photograph when I first began working from photographs back in 1973. I had always had an affection for this picture. A dear friend who happens to be psychologist looked at the painting and thought that they were my family.   It's bizarre as my family were from Russia and these are Portuguese, but he was right there is a resemblance. The woman on the left resembled my Aunt Rose, the woman in the middle my Aunt Mildred, then my mother in the back and grandmother on the end. And the man whose face is obscured by the shadow is my father who I never knew. Maybe that is why they say you always put something of yourself into your work.

Picture of the Week #197 "Lonely Glacier" Valdez, Alaska 1976 Signed and Stamped

While on location filming my second feature film, "Pipe Dreams", I came across this huge hunk of an iceberg that had broken off from nearby Columbia glacier. I incorporated as much as I could into the movie,  but the drama of what we experienced was greatly reduced by recording it on film. There is nothing like a "live" experience, and this one certainly got the juices flowing. At least I have this visual memory.

Picture of the Week #196 "Monk Meeting" Paru, Bhutan 2000 Signed and Stamped

Another image from my series from Bhutan. Even though the decree of this little kingdom is happiness, you wouldn't know it looking at some of the expressions on their faces. The picture was taken at a religious festival where masked dancers whirled about in an age old tradition while these loyal devotees watched in silence.

Picture of the Week #195 "Eight Million Stories" New York City NY 1970 Signed and Stamped

Forty-two years later and this image still haunts me. I made this when I was producing and directing a music video for the rock group "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show". The song was called "Carry Me" and was about alcoholism. Not sure how to portray that I hid a camera in my coat and went to the Bowery, which in those days was where the addicted hung out. I've shown a couple of images from this series before. (see Pictures of the Week #7 & #68) I tried sneaking pictures but was caught fairly soon by two of the meanest looking guys you ever saw. They asked for a quarter. I gave it to them. They became my "guides" and walked me around so that I could get the pictures that I needed. Years later I turned these 35mm color transparencies Black and White and had a show titled "Holy Men Medicine Men Mad Men" which channeled me away from filmmaking and painting and allowed me to pursue my passion of taking pictures after a Vanity Fair editor had said; "Stephen Verona's work recalls the greatness of Steichen and Weegee with all of the passion of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. A Must see!" I've never looked back except to my pictures.