Comments on: Looking for a picture of a windy day

Question: Looking for a picture of a windy day

uncanny hengeman — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:46:25 -0800

I'm looking for a link to a famous(ish) picture featuring an impossibly windy day. I've seen it two or three times over the years in gift/poster shops. Hopefully my memory isn't playing tricks. The clues I have:

* It's a painting or drawing, not a real photograph.
* It's set in a city.
* People are maybe waiting around for a bus or something.
* Might be set in the 1950s or earlier if you look at the fashions.
* At least one person is holding on to a railing or similar and is practically being blown horizontal.

By: Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:58:54 -0800

It's not Gusty Day On the Isis is it?

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:06:58 -0800

No. But thanks, Rubber Soul.

By: Effigy2000

Effigy2000 — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:33:19 -0800

Is it Jean Beraud's 'A Windy Day on the Pont des Arts'?

By: Effigy2000

Effigy2000 — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:37:40 -0800

Or this, by the same artist (apparently)?

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:00:46 -0800

A little bit more modern. Say in the style of The Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

Pretty sure in was set in an American city.

By: hindmost

hindmost — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:03:11 -0800

Jour de Vent, Place de la Concorde (Windy Day, Place de la Concorde) ?
Same artist as Effigy2000's post, I believe.

By: hindmost

hindmost — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:07:03 -0800

I am hindmost's failure to preview.

By: Etaoin Shrdlu

Etaoin Shrdlu — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:36:26 -0800

Maybe Buster Keaton in 'Steamboat Bill Jr.?

By: stresstwig

stresstwig — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:19:19 -0800

While I can't remember the artist or title, are you sure you're not thinking of a photograph? I remember seeing a photography museum in the Austin MoA and there was a photographer who would stage photographs-- the one that sound similar was one something of a construction paper background, fake set type thing with several people in front on a sidewalk all pretending like they were being blown away. One guy was hanging from a wire, horizontally, holding onto a lampost.

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:25:53 -0800

Thanks, stresstwig.

Very possible. Maybe it was so freaky my memory morphed it into a drawing and not a photo.

By: londongeezer

londongeezer — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:51:13 -0800

A related image, very famous in contemporary art circles, is Jeff Wall's phtowork entitled A Sudden Gust of Wind (1993).

By: unSane

unSane — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 03:47:24 -0800

londongeezer, I was just about to say that.

A Sudden Gust of Wind

It's a riff on a C19th print by Hokusai:

Ejiri in Suruga Province

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 04:45:39 -0800

Great fun perusing your answers. Very interesting.

stresstwig's answer sounds extremely close to the mark, if you could have a re-read of his description.

Sorry for giving you a bum steer and saying it wasn't a photograph.

By: stresstwig

stresstwig — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:36:40 -0800

Hmm, I don't know if this is it, but this is the photo I was remembering. Nic Nicosia:

http://www.ccsb.com/images/art_photos/gallery/near_modern_disaster.jpg

By: stresstwig

stresstwig — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:40:34 -0800

Sorry, here's his real website, with that photo (Near (modern) Disaster #8) in his early work section:

http://www.nicnicosia.com/#

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:14:32 -0800

That's not it. It was a city streetscape with multi-storey buildings in the background.

But thanks for all your help, everyone. I think it might be time to abandon all hope. :(

By: Dub

Dub — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:15:09 -0800

(same links as here).

this popped up here, as did this.

You could try here (some pos NSFW), too.

By: Dub

Dub — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:21:30 -0800

(Addenda: Sorry, I should have mentioned, I used Google Ripper and Dogpile image searches)