Frequently asked
Most of these started as questions strangers actually asked me on walks. I wrote them down so the next stranger has it easier.
Laterna is a personal field guide of lanterns I have met while walking around the world. It is part travelogue, part scrapbook, part excuse to take long detours after dark.
A lantern is a small contract between a place and a person walking through it. The light says: someone wanted you to see this. I find that very moving, and I have for as long as I can remember.
Mostly Germany and Spain so far, with a slow trickle from anywhere else my legs have carried me. Each photo lists the location when I remember to write it down.
They are my photos, kept here for the joy of it. If you want to use one, get in touch first. I am almost always happy to say yes, I just like being asked.
Whenever the next good one shows up. Sometimes three in a week, sometimes nothing for a month. There is no schedule, because there is no schedule in walking.
It has to make me stop. That can be the craftsmanship, the placement, the weather it is fighting, or the way it makes the rest of the street look. A plain lantern in a great moment beats an ornate one in a bad one, every time.
Please do. I will not promise I get there soon, but I keep a list, and I have arranged whole trips around items on that list before.
Laterna is the Latin word for lantern. It is the shortest honest title I could give this project, in a language old enough that nobody can argue with it.