Esplanade Tase Water Tower

The Esplanade Tase Water Tower is a unique shooting subject tucked away in a small park surrounded by apartment buildings. This tall red and white concrete tower really stands out with its bright paint job. It dated back to the 1920s and is ringed with the names of old textiles as the last piece left of what was once the biggest artificial silk factory in France. This mix of a bold industrial relic against clean modern buildings make it a great spot to experiment with both architectural and urban street photography. The tower itself is almost a piece of public art with its curved red and white surfaces that read beautifully against a blue sky, and up close the painted bands and hard shadowed edges make strong, almost abstract frames. This is generally a quiet park so you should have lots of space to set up well down the esplanade and use the wide paved walkway and rows of young trees as leading lines running straight to the tower. Or you can experiment with moving in closer to play the sunlit side against the shaded one. Architecturally it works well to frame the tower beside the white apartments for an old meets new contrast. If you come in the afternoon there is usually activity in the park, with cyclists, scooters and kids on the tall wooden play structure, to add a sense of scale and street photography to your shooting outing. A bright day with a strong blue sky helps the red pop, and since the esplanade opens toward the tower from the south its face stays lit through much of the day. If you are looking for a more abstract vibe to your shooting the low morning or late afternoon sun spreads across the curves and brings out the texture. Access to the water tower is easy and free, since this is an open public park you can walk straight into anytime and there is lots of street parking around the neighbourhood. It is a fun, low effort stop with a unique and striking subjectto experiment with. (Vaulx-en-Velin, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France)