Urban Archives - Mark Middleton

Pelourinho Salvador Brazil at Sunrise: Photographing the Historic Heart of Bahia

by markmiddletonArchitecture, Urban May 30, 2026May 30, 2026No Comments

Pelourinho Salvador Brazil is one of the most fascinating historic districts I have ever visited. During a trip to Bahia in 2025, I found myself wandering its cobblestone streets before sunrise, camera in hand, exploring the birthplace of colonial Brazil while the city was still asleep. After attending CIMI360 and spending time in Brazil, I …

An Evening Walk Through Downtown St. Petersburg: Photography, History, Architecture, and Quiet Reflection

by markmiddletonUrban May 8, 2026May 30, 2026Comments are Disabled

One of the things I love most about photography is that it slows you down. Not artificially. Not in a forced or curated way. It simply changes the way you move through the world. You stop rushing. You notice details. You pay attention to light, texture, movement, architecture, and people. Photography teaches observation, and observation …

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Fear, Beauty, History, and the Soul of a City

by markmiddletonUrban May 7, 2026May 7, 2026Comments are Disabled

For years, I avoided Brazil. Not because I didn’t want to go. Quite the opposite. Brazil fascinated me. The music, the coastline, the history, the architecture, the photography opportunities, the energy of Rio de Janeiro itself. It all pulled at my imagination for a very long time. But everywhere I traveled throughout South America, other …

Five palm trees silhouetted against a colorful sunset sky in Hawaii with tropical clouds and fading light

Hawaii Through My Lens: Fourteen Years of Returning to What Feels Like Home

by markmiddletonGeneral, Landscapes, Urban May 5, 2026May 5, 2026Comments are Disabled

For the past fourteen years, Hawaii has been more than a destination for me—it has become a place of rhythm, reflection, and creative energy. It’s where I go to reset, to explore, and to capture moments that feel timeless. Somewhere between the sway of the palms and the glow of the Pacific at sunset, I …

Snow-covered vintage Citroën 2CV on a cobblestone street at night in Edinburgh, Scotland, with “Clean Me Up” written on the rear window under warm streetlight

Clean Me Up — A Winter Moment in Edinburgh

by markmiddletonUrban May 3, 2026May 3, 2026Comments are Disabled

There are photographs you plan… and then there are photographs that find you. This was one of those. I had just left the World Scotch Tasting Experience in Edinburgh—warm, relaxed, and probably walking just a little slower than usual—and was making my way a few blocks back to the The Balmoral Hotel. It was winter. …

Seven men silhouetted against a golden Malecón Havana sunset, fishing along the Havana seawall with the city skyline visible in the distance — documentary photography Cuba, 2017.

Havana Malecón Sunset Photography: Seven Fishermen and the Light That Stopped Me Cold

by markmiddletonUrban May 1, 2026May 1, 2026Comments are Disabled

There are photographs you spend months planning — the location scouted, the light calculated, the composition rehearsed. And then there are the ones that simply happen, if you’re paying attention. This image, made along the Malecón in Havana during the summer of 2017, belongs entirely to the second category. It is, without question, one of …

Photographing Dunedin: A Decade of shooting the Same Town

by markmiddletonLandscapes, Urban April 27, 2026May 6, 2026Comments are Disabled

There is a kind of photography that travel writers and Instagram briefly describe as “discovering” a place. You arrive somewhere new, you photograph it intensely for a few days, and you leave with a portfolio of images that capture what the place looks like to a stranger encountering it for the first time. I have …

Two men cooking shish kebab over an open flame in a narrow alley at night in Cairo, Egypt, illuminated by warm street light

Street Photography in Cairo, Egypt — A Moment That Changed My Perspective

by markmiddletonUrban March 1, 2026May 6, 2026Comments are Disabled

By the time I arrived in Cairo, Egypt in late 2014, I had already been traveling for months—moving across countries and cultures with little more than a camera and a curious heart. But Egypt felt different from anywhere else I had been. Cairo is a city of powerful contrasts—ancient yet alive, chaotic yet sacred, worn …

Inle Lake Myanmar

by markmiddletonLandscapes, Urban February 1, 2026April 25, 2026Comments are Disabled

In the summer of 2014, I arrived at Inle Lake almost by accident—and it ended up being one of the most meaningful places I’ve ever photographed. Myanmar (formerly Burma) had only recently begun opening its borders after decades of isolation. Tourism was still limited, infrastructure was minimal, and much of the country felt untouched by …

El Morro, Habana

by markmiddletonLandscapes, Urban January 25, 2026May 6, 2026Comments are Disabled

The sun had just slipped below the horizon when I made this photograph. El Morro Castle stood watch over the Malecón as the last light softened across the water and the Caribbean broke against the rocks below. I was there on a sailing trip with a group of friends, and that evening carried the rare, …