Postcards from "Buffalo The Bold"

With the advent of cell phone/camera, I doubt (with the exception of Postcard Willie who has taken the art of postcard writing to a higher level) many of you send postcards to family and friends when travelling anymore. Why would one?

Though postcards are relatively cheap, the postage is not – case in point we paid $3 last year to mail one from Italy to Calgary - and half the time you arrive home before the post card. It is hard to compete with free and immediate photos and messages via texts, emails, tweets and instagrams. But the problem with these generic images is people glance at them once, often never to be looked at again. On the flipside, the great thing about postcards is they are often kept for months, years and sometimes even decades. I see my photos as custom postcards, images of the off-the-beaten path, hidden gems we find when prowling the streets and alleys of a cities we visit.

Recently, we had a chance to spend three days in Buffalo, New York. We loved it - especially the history, the architecture, the food, the beer, the art and the renaissance. There is a unique urbanity to Buffalo that makes it true to itself and not trying to be like everyone else. There is an compelling contrast between the modest working class homes and the majestic mansions, between the brutalist architecture of cement grain elevators and the art deco design of their City Hall. There is subtle boldness to Buffalo’s early 21st century renaissance that it beginning to match the City’s heyday a century ago.

I hope you will enjoy these everyday tourist postcards of “Buffalo The Bold.”