Photo collection: Red carpets
The same warm gesture, photographed at entrance after entrance. What differs is the ground under it.
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The photo that started the series. A warm welcome, laid over two steps. Download photo -
The grander the entrance, the longer the stairs under the carpet. Download photo -
The full ceremony, stanchions and all. The carpet covers the flat ground and the landing. The steps in between get nothing. Download photo -
The carpet reaches the steps, then stops being for everyone. Download photo -
Columns, a wooden door, and the carpet over the steps. Download photo -
A runner up the steps of a historic entrance. Download photo -
Stone steps, a stone lion, and the carpet up and over. Download photo -
The carpet lies flat and the entrance looks level, but just inside the door a step waits. A welcome has to hold all the way in. Download photo -
A red carpet on level ground. No steps, no ramp needed, level access as the default. Download photo -
A level entrance. The carpet welcomes everyone who arrives. Download photo -
Wide-open doors, flat paving, and the carpet straight in. Download photo -
Carpet and ramp working together. Download photo -
Summer, street level, everyone on the same carpet. Download photo -
The full-scale version. A carpet the width of the entrance, on flat ground. Download photo
What it is
The red carpet is the clearest welcome our culture has: someone important is coming. I have photographed it at entrance after entrance for years, and the gesture is the same. What differs is the ground under it.
Some of the photographs show the carpet draped over stairs. The welcome is real, but it is addressed to some visitors and not to others, and the stairs decide which. Others show the carpet on level ground, where the same gesture welcomes everyone who arrives. Nothing about the warmth changed. Only the ground did.
I use these pairs in teaching because they make the point faster than any definition: exclusion rarely announces itself, it hides under something friendly.
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Save any of the photographs above and use them under the license below. If you want an original in full resolution, write to me.
License: Open Educational Resource
This is an Open Educational Resource (OER). Everything I have created here is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0).
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Attribution: give appropriate credit and indicate if changes were made. A simple "Per-Olof Hedvall, peohedvall.com" is enough.
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