Why are old Eastern European cities often more beautiful than modern Western cities? So many attractive buildings and spaces. Progress isn't always progressive, I guess.

This is a reworking of some images from Prague made quite a few years ago. They have these charming manhole covers with the city crest on all over the city and I started taking pictures of them and then the buildings ahead of them. I didn't take photos to the left and right of the covers so those spaces had to be filled in. I used the automatic fill in Photoshop to create those ghostly sections. You have to do it several times to readjust things. It is a labour saving device with some surprising choices that can be used to take you a different direction to your instincts. It needs nudging along and redoing but can solver more problems than it creates.

I made a separate layer to increase the contrast of the buildings, to define the edges of the buildings. That zig zag block effect is what gives it more interest. The planes of the shapes seemingly changing and reverting concertina like.

The small and distant figures of people also help to emphasize a certain Lilliputian quality inherent in the scene.