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February 8, 2009
This picture is seeing what I would not normally see, or pass quickly by on a walk with the dogs without paying any attention to. I would even miss it on my urban explorations (dérive) with the poodles in which I would let myself be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters I find there:
We have experienced a heat wave in Adelaide these last two weeks with temperatures around 43 degrees during the day and 33 degrees at night. So photography has been minimal. During that time I just explored the urban area around where I live in the city, just as the sun is going down. As the surfaces of the city were very hot I moved very slowly. So I was seeing what I would not normally see.
People would begin to come out on the streets around 7.30-8.00 pm mostly to go to air-conditioned restaurants. Few hung around the streets, let alone explored the streets. The severe heat meant a different kind of letting-go since walking was difficult. This form of dérive often took place within a deliberately limited period of an hour, or even fortuitously during fairly brief moments.
The city felt and looked different.
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Guy Debord says storms or other types of precipitation are rather favorable for dérives. We have heat storms in Adelaide.