La Boca

Facades of brightly painted corrugated metal--it’s now a total cliché, but I still love seeing what sunlight does on colored walls. To see more, do a google image search for "La Boca buildings."









I wandered around the less touristy parts of La Boca, the Buenos Aires barrio, but didn’t get to take many pix. Every time I took my camera out, someone would come over to me tell me to put it away because it would be stolen. Even on the bus, when I was shooting from the window, the woman in front of me said that “they” would reach into the window and grab my camera if I had it out.

Pimp My Bus

From the moment I saw my first Linea 17 turquoise bus on day one in Buenos Aires, I was hooked. There are 144 different bus lines in BA all privately owned and operated. A total eye-feast of color and typography, but really nothing compared to the old days when buses were rolling works of genuine folk art. See pre-1970s buses covered with the scrolling flourishes of ‘fileteado’ here and here. The drivers personalize the interiors as well-- there was at least one instance of fuzzy dice, and fancy cut glass mirrors are installed over many of the windshields.

Buenos Colores

Garbage cans and other street furnishings are for most part invisible to us...




until we go someplace else. Waste receptacle, recycling bins, and public telephones in Buenos Aires.

Taxi!

New York: Brash


London: Grim


Buenos Aires: Elegant