Facade, Hotel Monteleone – New Orleans, Louisiana

Rounding out this architectural mini-series of facades from New Orleans, here’s another wonderfully ornate building from the French Quarter. This hotel is a block and a half from Canal Street, which is the border between the French Quarter and newer parts of town.

I don’t know if it’s because the French Quarter is particularly beautiful, but in contrast, the office skyscrapers of New Orleans look bland. If the Quarter adds to the fabric of New Orleans, the office buildings detract. The reality is the efficient and modern towers are probably no worse than any other American city. But the contrast between the details and textures of the old and the efficiency of the new seem particularly harsh there.

This is another, more or less, symmetrical composition shot with the Olympus PEN-F and 9-18mm super-wide. I composed all three in this series in black and white, but instead of the in-camera JPEG, I used the RAWs for the greatest clarity and definition.