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Drying Saris..., Gangasagar 2012. .
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A nun... on the run?
A puddle, a plastic clockwork nun... and a reflection of one in the other.
Helen... this is my submission to the "REFLECTIONS" photo challenge!
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The Early English Gothic cathedral of Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, during snow.
Construction of Peterborough Cathedral began in 1118 and was completed in 1237. With its three towering arches - each one of which is 82 feet high - the celebrated West Front is totally unique, without precedent or successor in Medieval architecture, and the cathedral is one of the most important 12th century buildings in Britain to have remained largely intact. Overall height, to the top of the towers, is 156 feet.
This is the third church to have stood on the site: the first, Medeshampstede Abbey, survived from 655 to 870, when the Vikings destroyed it. The second, a Benedictine establishment, lasted from 966 until 1116 before it then burnt down. Guess they got lucky with this one, which has withstood King Henry VIII's 16th century Dissolution of the Monasteries, vandalism during the English Civil War in 1643, and a deliberately-started fire in November 2001.
The cathedral contains the tomb of Henry VIII's first wife Katherine of Aragon (one of the ones he didn't execute or divorce), who died in 1536. In 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been executed nearby, was buried here, but later moved to Westminster Abbey on the orders of her son, King James I, who presumably felt that Peterborough wasn't a great place to spend all eternity.
Taken in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England on January 14, 2013.
Front View of an old wooden Greek Catholic church of St. Paraskevia from 1894 in Czyrna village in the Carpathian Mountains, Poland.
The church is currently a Roman Catholic church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
This oriented tripartite church on a cross plan has log-framework structure. The tower featuring an overhung loft is timbered and topped with a clock cornice and a dome. Its ridge roof, covered with sheet metal and bearing turrets above the nave and presbytery, is topped with bulbous domes with lanterns.
Photo taken on : 14.08.2011
Place : Kalijai Temple, Chilka, Orissa, India
Prasun Dutta Photgraphy | © www.prasundutta.com | All Rights Reserved.
Unauthorized use or reproduction for any reason is prohibited.
The monastery was founded by the Assyrian monk Joseph (Yoseb, Amba) Alaverdeli, who came from Antioch and settled in Alaverdi, then a small village and former pagan religious center dedicated to the Moon. At a height of over 55 meters, Alaverdi Cathedral is the second tallest religious building in Georgia, after Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, which was consecrated in 2004.
The monastery dates back to the 6th century, the present day cathedral was built in the 11th century by Kvirike III of Kakheti, replacing an older church of St. George.
Alaverdi Monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Religious Art Museum in the Old Quarters of Panama.
Museo de Arte Religioso en el Casco Viejo de Panama
There are two monuments. The earlier rock-cut Jain structure of beads with inscriptions and drip-ledges is the earliest Jain monument in the southernmost part of India which was from first century BC to sixth century AD
Santa Chiara is a religious complex in Naples, Italy, that includes the Church of Santa Chiara, a monastery, tombs and an archeological museum. The Basilica church of Santa Chiara faces Via Benedetto Croce, which is the easternmost leg of Via Spaccanapoli. The church facade of Santa Chiara is diagonally across from the church of Gesù Nuovo.
The double monastic complex was built in 1313–1340 by Queen Sancha of Majorca and her husband King Robert of Naples, who is also buried in the complex. The original church was in traditional Provençal-Gothic style, but was decorated in the 17th century in Baroque style by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro. After the edifice was partially destroyed by a fire after the Allied bombings during World War II, it was brought back to the alleged original state by a disputed restoration, which was completed in 1953.
Famous is the cloister of the Clarisses, transformed in 1742 by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro with the unique addition of majolica tiles in Rococò style. The brash color floral decoration makes this cloister, with octagonal columns in pergola-like structure, likely unique and would seem to clash with the introspective world of cloistered nuns. The cloister arcades are also decorated by frescoes, now much degraded. (Wikipedia)
Jerusalem from a window located in the All Nations Church in Garden of Gethsemane. The Dome of the Rock is shown in the background.
Taken with a Pentex K1000, ISO 400 film and a 50 mm lense.
Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Ufa / Hämmerer. Ingrid Bergman in Die vier Gesellen/The Four Companions (Carl Froelich, 1938).
Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) was ‘Sweden's illustrious gift to Hollywood’. In the 1940s the fresh and naturally beautiful actress won three times the Oscar, twice the Emmy, and once the Tony Award for Best Actress. Little known is that before she went to Hollywood she already had a European film career.
Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1915 to a Swedish father and a German mother. At age 17, she had a taste of acting when she played an uncredited role of a girl standing in line in the Swedish film Landskamp (Gunnar Skoglund, 1932). The next year she was accepted to the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, but she soon decided that stage acting was not for her. During her first summer break, she was hired at a Swedish film studio to work in film full-time. Her first film part was in Munkbrogreven/The Count of the Old Town (Edvin Adolphson, 1935), where she had a speaking part as Elsa Edlund. In the following years, she made a dozen films in Sweden that established her as a class actress. Among them were Bränningar/The Surf (Ivar Johansson, 1935) and Dollar (Gustaf Mollander, 1938). Another film, En kvinnas ansikte (Gustaf Molander, 1938) would later be remade as A Woman's Face with Joan Crawford. Bergman also made a film in Germany, Die Vier Gesellen/The Four Companions (Carl Froelich, 1938).
Ingrid Bergman's breakthrough film was Intermezzo (Gustaf Molander, 1936), in which she played a pianist who has a love affair with a celebrated and married violinist, played by Gösta Ekman. Hollywood producer David O. Selznick saw it and sent a representative from MGM to gain the rights to the story and have the actress sign a contract. Ingrid went to California and starred in MGM's remake Intermezzo: A Love Story (Gregory Ratoff, 1939), reprising her original role. The film was a hit and so was Ingrid. Her beauty was unlike anything the movie industry had seen before and her acting was superb. She was under contract to go back to Sweden to film Juninatten/A Night in June (Per Lindberg, 1940). Back in the US, she appeared in three films, all well-received. In 1942 she played in only one film, but that film, Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), would make her a huge star. Bergman chose her roles well after Casablanca. In 1943, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls (Sam Wood, 1943), the only film she made that year. The critics and public didn't forget her when she made Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) the following year - her role as the persecuted wife of Charles Boyer got her the Oscar for Best Actress. In 1945, Ingrid played in Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945) with Gregory Peck, Saratoga Trunk (Sam Wood, 1945), and The Bells of St. Mary's (Leo McCarey, 1945), for which she received her third Oscar nomination for her part as Sister Benedict.
Ingrid Bergman also worked with Alfred Hitchcock on another classic, Notorious (1946) with Cary Grant, and the less successful Under Capricorn (1949) with Joseph Cotten. Bergman went to Alaska during World War II in order to entertain troops. Soon after the war ended, she also went to Europe for the same purpose, where she was able to see the devastation caused by the war. It was during this time that she began a relationship with the famous photographer Robert Capa. She made no films in 1947 but bounced back with a fourth nomination for Joan of Arc (Victor Fleming, 1948). She played the part of Jeanne d'Arc three times in her career: on stage in 1946 in Maxwell Anderson's Joan of Lorraine for which she won the Tony Award, in the film version in 1948, and in 1954 in the Italian film Giovanna d'Arco al rogo/Joan of Arc at the Stake (Roberto Rossellini, 1954), based on a 1935 dramatic oratorio by Arthur Honegger. But in 1949 Saint Ingrid first would suffer a sudden and disastrous fall from grace. In 1949 Ingrid Bergman went to Italy to film Stromboli (1950), directed by Roberto Rossellini. She fell in love with him and got pregnant. The pregnancy caused a huge scandal in the United States. It even led to Bergman being denounced on the floor of the US Senate by Edwin C. Johnson, a Democratic senator, who referred to her as "a horrible example of womanhood and a powerful influence for evil." In addition, there was a floor vote, which resulted in her being made 'persona non grata'. The scandal forced Bergman to exile herself to Italy, leaving her husband, Dr. Petter Lindström, and daughter, Pia Lindström in the United States. Dr. Lindström eventually sued for desertion and waged a custody battle for their daughter.
In 1950, Ingrid Bergman married Rossellini and the same year their son, Renato Roberto, was born. In 1952 Ingrid had twins, Isotta and Isabella Rossellini. Isabella would later become an outstanding actress in her own right, as did her half-sister Pia.
From 1950 to 1955 Bergman and Rossellini made six films together: Stromboli (1950), Europa '51/No Greater Love (1952), a segment of Siamo donne/We, the Women (1953), Viaggio in Italia/Voyage in Italy (1954), La paura/Fear (1954) and Giovanna d'Arco al rogo/Joan of Arc at the Stake (1954). These films were ahead of their time but were generally not received well, especially in the US, where many conservative political and religious leaders still raised a hue and cry about her past. Bergman also starred in Jean Renoir's Elena et les Hommes/Elena and Her Men (1956), a romantic comedy where she played a Polish princess caught in political intrigue. Although the film wasn't a success, it has since come to be regarded as one of her best performances. Finally, after being exiled from Hollywood for seven years, Bergman returned opposite Yul Brynner in the title role in Anastasia (Anatole Litvak, 1956), which was filmed in England. For this, she won her second Academy Award. She had scarcely missed a beat. The award was accepted for her by her friend Cary Grant. Bergman would not make her first post-scandal public appearance in Hollywood until the 1958 Academy Awards when she was the presenter of the Academy Award for Best Picture. Furthermore, after being introduced by Cary Grant and walking out on stage to present, she was given a standing ovation. In 1957 she divorced Rosselini and in 1958 she married Lars Schmidt, a theatrical entrepreneur from a wealthy Swedish shipping family. After all the years she spent away from Hollywood, she still managed to maintain her status as a major star, as the success of films like Indiscreet (Stanley Donen, 1958) opposite Cary Grant and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (Mark Robson, 1958) with Curd Jürgens showed.
In the 1960s, Ingrid Bergman concentrated on stage work and television appearances, and collaborated with her husband, theatrical producer Lars Schmidt, in such TV plays as The Turn of The Screw (John Frankenheimer, 1960) for which she won an Emmy Award and Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman's Life (Silvio Narrizano, 1961). She didn't appear in as many films as she had before, but she continued to bounce between Europe and the US making films. After a long hiatus, Bergman appeared in Cactus Flower (Gene Saks, 1968), with Walter Matthau and Goldie Hawn. In 1972, Senator Charles H. Percy entered an apology into the Congressional Record for the attack made on Bergman 22 years earlier by Edwin C. Johnson. Bergman won her third Academy Award for her role as Greta Ohlsson in Murder on the Orient Express (Sidney Lumet, 1974). Her performance is contained in a single scene: her interrogation by Poirot, captured in a single continuous take, nearly five minutes long. By 1975 Ingrid Bergman had divorced again. In her final big-screen performance in Höstsonaten/Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman, 1978) she had her seventh Academy Award nomination. Bergman plays in this film a celebrity pianist who returns to Sweden to visit her neglected daughter, played by Liv Ullmann. Though she didn't win the Oscar, many felt it was the best performance of her career. In the late 1970s, Ingrid Bergman first discovered the symptoms of cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Her last role was in the television film A Woman Called Golda (Alan Gibson, 1982), about the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Ingrid Bergman died in 1982, in London, the day after having a small party with a few friends for her 67th birthday. At her burial a single violin played the song As Time Goes By, the theme from Casablanca, recalling her most famous role, that of Ilsa Lund. That year her daughter, Pia Lindström accepted the Emmy Award for Best Actress that Ingrid won posthumously for A Woman Called Golda. Seventeen years later, in 1999, she was ranked #4 in the American Film Institute's list of greatest female screen legends. Later she was ranked #5 in Premiere's list of 'The 50 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time'. Ingrid Bergman continues to be a cultural icon - for her films and for her innocent, natural beauty.
Sources: Denny Jackson, Naim81 and Ezio Flavio de Freitas (IMDb), Wikipedia, Hitchcock.tv, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
"Religious symbol" for 115 Pictures in 2015.
I spotted these little crosses in the grass outside the church - very poignant
He was a British author, orator, religious, literary critic and journalist. Hitchens was the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of over 30 books, including five collections of essays, on politics, literature and religion. A staple of public discourse, his confrontational style of debate made him both a lauded intellectual and a controversial public figure.
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
The Church of the Nativity is a basilica located in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, Palestine.
The church was originally commissioned in 327 by Constantine the Great and his mother Helena over the site that was traditionally considered to be located over the cave that marks the birthplace of Jesus. The Church of the Nativity site's original basilica was completed in 339 and destroyed by fire during the Samaritan Revolts in the 6th century. A new basilica was built 565 by Justinian, the Byzantine Emperor, restoring the architectural tone of the original. The site of the Church of the Nativity has had numerous additions since this second construction, including its prominent bell towers. Due to its cultural and geographical history, the site holds a prominent religious significance to those of the Christian faith.
The site of the Church of the Nativity is a World Heritage Site, and was the first to be listed under Palestine by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The site is also on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger. The Status Quo, a 250-year old understanding between religious communities, applies to the site.
The church is administered jointly by Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian Apostolic and Syriac orthodox church authorities. All four traditions maintain monastic communities on the site.
The wider site connected to the Grotto of the Nativity where tradition states that Jesus of Nazareth was born, includes the Church of the Nativity itself, and the adjoining Roman Catholic Church of St. Catherine. Access to the crypt beneath the Church of the Nativity, which contains the Grotto, is possible from both churches, although the Grotto is separated by a normally closed door from the underground spaces of St Catherine's.
Simon Vouet. 1590-1649. Paris. Loth et ses filles. Lot and his daughters. 1633. Strasbourg. Palais des Rohan .
La légende de Loth et ses filles a rarement été traitée par les peintres européens dans un esprit très religieux !! Rappelons que pour l'Ancien Testament (la Thora) l'épisode signifie que la nécessité fait loi, et que la survie de l'espèce prime les règles habituelles interdisant l'inceste.
The legend of Lot and his daughters has rarely been treated by European painters in a very religious spirit !! Let us remember that for the Old Testament (the Torah) the episode signifies that necessity is law, and that the survival of the species takes precedence over the usual rules forbidding incest.
LE BEAU EST UNE EXPÉRIENCE PARTAGÉE
"Le monde discerne la beauté, et, par là le laid se révèle. Le monde reconnaît le bien et, par là le mal se révèle."
Dao De Jing, le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu
LAO TSEU (Laozi)
“When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, there arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, there arises the recognition of evil.”
Dao De Jing, The Book of the Way and Virtue
LAO TZU (Laozi)
"Tout l’art florentin depuis Giotto et tout au long du Quattrocento, possède cette stupéfiante qualité de vérité absolue, reconnue. L’effet immédiat d’un grand Giotto ou d’un Masaccio est de laisser le spectateur sans voix. Cela s’appelait autrefois la Beauté."
MARIE MAC CARTHY "Les Pierres de Florence" 1956.
“All great Florentine art, from Giotto through the quattrocento, has the faculty of amazing with its unexpected and absolute truthfulness. This faculty was once called beauty The immediate effect of a great Giotto or Masaccio is to strike the beholder dumb.”
MARY McCARTHY, “The Stones of Florence,” 1956.
"Il est impossible de rien comprendre à l'art médiéval si l’on ne comprend pas quel espace de liberté y est consenti à l’artiste. L’art médiéval offre l’évidence d’un plaisir des formes qui est commun aux artistes et à leur public et qui ne se confond pas avec l’inspiration religieuse."
ANDRE CHASTEL. L’Art Français Flammarion 1993
"It is impossible to understand anything about medieval art if we do not understand what space of freedom is granted to the artist. Medieval art offers evidence of a pleasure of form that is common to artists and their audiences and not confused with religious inspiration."
ANDRE CHASTEL. French Art Flammarion 1993
Le monde est là pour être goûté; la réalité est là comme un banquet qui s'offre, l'art n'est rien d'autre que l'exaltation de la saveur cachée des choses.
François CHENG. (« Toute beauté est singulière » « D’où jaillit le chant » et « Shitao, la saveur du monde »)
The world is there to be tasted; reality is there as a banquet that is offered, art is nothing more than the exaltation of the hidden flavor of things.
François CHENG. ("All beauty is singular" "From where the song springs" and "Shitao, the flavor of the world")
Contrairement à une idée reçue, toute nouvelle, considérée comme une évidence à notre époque, le Beau n'est pas subjectif. Non, le Beau n'est pas seulement une question de goût personnel, un arbitraire total, absolument égocentrique. Le beau n'est pas autiste, il est un partage, même si certaines de ses formes peuvent être plus accessibles à certaines personnes qu'à d'autres, à certaines cultures et pas à d'autres.
La preuve que le Beau existe est qu'il est reconnu et admis de manière unanime par les opinions publiques, et celle des spécialistes, pour des millions d' oeuvres dont les dates de création vont de - 3000 à nos jours. Le Beau est d'ailleurs reconnu, vécu comme une expérience généralement partagée, non seulement dans l'art mais dans tout le spectacle de la Nature.
Il faut laisser de côté les définitions abstraites. Les Philosophes n'ont jamais réussi à donner une définition satisfaisante et incontestable du Beau. Laissons à Platon son Idée d'un Beau transcendant impossible à atteindre. Restons à un niveau plus trivial, celui de la beauté remarquable, concrète : il n'y a absolument aucune discussion sérieuse quant à l'existence du Beau, d'une sensation commune, une émotion poétique, partagée par des millions d'hommes, depuis L'Art Paléolithique, l'Art Egyptien jusqu'à l'Art Moderne, depuis la Chine jusqu'à l'Europe et l'Amérique.
Le Beau ne se définit pas, il se ressent individuellement et collectivement. Individuellement ressenti le beau est seulement subjectif, il n'a d'importance que pour une personne, collectivement ressenti, partagé par les élites et les populations, ensemble, il s'objective. Il devient une réalité à l'échelle d'une collectivité plus ou moins large, et même jusqu'à la Terre entière. Le Beau est tout simplement un fait vérifié par l'expérience de milliers de générations d'humains sur l'ensemble de la Terre.
Des trois idées fondamentales, Beau, Bien, Vrai, le Beau est la première dont il est possible de repérer l'apparition avec certitude dans l'histoire des hommes: Parce qu'il laisse des traces que nous constatons. Quand apparait l'idée de Bien? Quand apparaît l'idée de Vrai ?
Le Beau ne se définit pas, il se ressent et il évolue en fonction du temps. Sans aucun doute l'erreur de l'Académie de Paris vers 1850 a été de vouloir définir les règles du Beau, in abstracto, pour tous les temps et toutes les civilisations, erreur profonde, et les impressionnistes ont eu très vite raison contre lui. Ils ont démontré que le Beau partagé pouvait prendre d'autres formes.
Le Beau peut prendre des formes différentes selon les cultures ou les civilisations. Il est reconnu comme Beau à l'intérieur de son domaine culturel, mais aussi souvent à l'extérieur.
La peinture des lettrés chinois est très particulière, il est possible à titre individuel de ne pas l'apprécier, mais il serait faux de parler à son propos d'un Art du laid, et elle n'est pas jugée comme tel par l'épreuve du temps et de sa confrontation avec d'autres cultures comme celle occidentale.
Le Beau est tout simplement un fait vérifié par l'expérience de milliers de générations d'humains sur l'ensemble de la Terre. Le tableau de Léonard de Vinci, la Joconde (Mona Lisa) et le succès qu'il rencontre auprès des populations extrême orientales est une preuve de cette universalité du Beau.
Il existe "un sens du Beau, commun à toute l'humanité" qui est indépendant des modes, des religions et des idéologies et même des cultures. Même s'il ne faut pas négliger certaines spécificités ou variabilités tenant à telle culture ou à telle époque. Le constat global reste celui d'un partage du sentiment du beau à l'échelle universelle.
Le beau s'identifie par une intense satisfaction, un sentiment de bonheur, de joie, d'ordre sensuel ou intellectuel qui envahit la personne, c'est son point de départ subjectif . Ce point de départ subjectif qui s'objective par le partage de ce sentiment avec une foule d'autres personnes, de cultures et d'époques différentes, pour parvenir à l'émergence d'une quasi unanimité et d'une quasi universalité.
Le beau est certes un vécu subjectif en ce qu'il est ressenti individuellement, mais il s'objective par l'opinion convergente, formulée au cours du temps, par les peuples et les élites. C'est ce jugement commun des peuples et des élites, cette expérience partagée, qui objective et prouve le Beau.
Ce qui est subjectif ce sont les préférences des individus. Ce qui est subjectif c'est quand une personne préfère les fresques romanes ou l'art du gothique international à la peinture de la Renaissance Italienne.
Quand une personne préfère l'art du paysage ou la peinture de moeurs à la peinture religieuse.
Si on avait dit à Fra Angelico, à Raphaël ou à Rubens que le Beau n'existe pas et est affaire purement subjective, ils auraient haussé les épaules.
Non seulement le sentiment du Beau est un fait d'expérience, un bien commun à l'humanité, qui traverse les temps et les cultures, mais le Beau peut être ressenti alors que les idéologies qui ont inspiré les oeuvres d'art à une époque donnée, dans une région de la Terre, sont mortes en tant que croyances actives.
Il n'est pas nécessaire de croire dans les Esprits, les Dieux Egyptiens, Grecs, Hindous ou dans les Bouddhas pour apprécier la beauté de l'art des cavernes, de l'Egypte antique, de la Grèce, de l'Inde, ou de l'Asie du Sud Est.
De même, les représentations de Dieu et du monde qui sont celles des églises chrétiennes, qui ont été vivantes et profondément significatives pour les populations européennes pendant plus d'un millénaire, peuvent ne plus avoir de sens pour une très large majorité des populations de l'Europe de l'Ouest et du Nord au 21è siècle. Il reste cependant que ces populations, comme d'autres peuples dans d'autres cultures, peuvent reconnaître le Beau dans des oeuvres d'art dont les symboles ne sont plus idéologiquement significatifs pour elles, voire même leur paraissent absurdes. Les croyances changent mais le sentiment du Beau dure.
Le Beau est donc un fait constaté au travers de toute l'histoire des civilisations.
Le Beau est certes une idée, mais pendant des siècles ce n'était pas une idéologie. Et encore moins son contraire le Laid. Les multiples idéologies, le plus souvent religieuses, qui ont habité durant des millénaires l'esprit des hommes ont utilisé l'idée du beau pour soutenir leurs croyances les plus diverses et même opposées.
A partir de la seconde moitié du 20è siècle les élites idéologiques et politiques de l'Occident, athées, ont décidé d' imposer la croyance que le Beau n'existait pas, et de faire croire que le Laid est une valeur recommandable. L'art contemporain officiel en est la démonstration: Le laid est devenu une idéologie, l'idéologie correcte du mondialisme. La population la plus "éclairée" est invitée à communier avec le Laid, et l'Absurde, à y patauger délicieusement, avec distinction et conceptualisme.
L'affirmation que le Beau n'existe pas, est purement subjectif, est une idée fausse, conçue et répandue au cours de la seconde moitié du 20è siècle pour des motifs idéologiques et économiques.
Les motifs idéologiques sont, notamment, que ce relativisme permet de justifier l'Art Laid officiel et que l'art laid est un critère de distinction entre les Eclairés et ceux qui ne le sont pas. L'homme peut en effet inventer des idéologies, des croyances, qui nient le Beau et le Bien. Cette capacité d'invention de croyances les plus diverses et contraires fait la différence entre l'homme et les animaux.
C'est une évolution mais ce n'est pas nécessairement un progrès. Ce peut être, c'est toujours, inévitablement, sous certains aspects, aussi une régression. La capacité d'inventer le Beau rencontre son contraire, celle d'inventer le Laid. Et même, comme dans l'art contemporain officiel, d'en faire une règle, une doctrine. La capacité au Bien est inséparable de celle de faire le Mal. Et la formulation de vérités ouvre toute grande la porte aux mensonges.
Un autre motif idéologique du Mondialisme est la destruction des identités civilisationnelles, culturelles, une volonté d'uniformisation de l'humanité pour mieux la contrôler. C'est pourquoi l'art contemporain mondialiste est sans racines aucunes, dans aucune culture de la Terre. La disparition des différences est programmée, sauf quelques réserves pour humains inférieurs, animaux et plantes rares. Vive la bio-diversité. Mais place à l'homme-robotisé.
Outre les motifs idéologiques, cette affirmation permet aussi de fabriquer et de vendre du Laid, ce qui est une excellente affaire. Et ce n'est pas la moindre raison de ce succès. L'Art Contemporain Officiel, étatique, l'art des grandes Organisations Culturelle Internationales a bien évidemment partie liée avec le grand capitalisme des marchands et des financiers, et avec les Grandes Fondations "philanthropiques" qui en sont l'émanation. Des Fondations pour lesquelles le profit peut se faire à propos du beau, mais tout aussi bien avec du laid. Et si le laid est de meilleur profit, ils n'hésiteront pas. Ils peuvent même vous faire croire que le laid est beau. Et en attendant votre conversion, ils vous font croire que c'est légitime et surtout supérieurement intelligent. Car plus l'acheteur potentiel restera bouche béante devant l’œuvre, plus grand il ouvrira son portefeuille.
Quant au grand public ordinaire: "on peut faire avaler n'importe quoi aux gens" a dit Marcel Duchamp. Oui, c'est vrai. Pas nécessairement d'ailleurs que "les gens avalent n'importe quoi ", mais certainement que les gens n'osent pas critiquer et condamner le "n'importe quoi". Soyez Soft, soyez Zen, au nom du Soft et du Zen, et de la mode, "on peut faire avaler n'importe quoi aux gens".
BEAUTY IS A SHARED EXPERIENCE
Contrary to a widely, yet only recently accepted notion, which is now considered a truism, Beauty is not subjective. No, Beauty is not just a matter of personal taste, total arbitrariness and absolute egocentricity. Beauty is not autistic, it involves sharing, although some of its forms may be more accessible to some people than others, to some cultures and not to others.
The proof that Beauty exists is that it is recognized and unanimously accepted as such by public opinion and by specialists, with regard to millions of works of art created between 3000 B.C. to the present day. Beauty is generally recognized as a shared experience, not just in relation to art, but also in the spectacle that Nature offers.
Abstract definitions should be set aside. Philosophers have never succeeded in giving a satisfactory and unquestionable definition of Beauty. Forget about Plato and his idea of transcendent, unattainable Beauty. Let us stay at a more trivial level, that of outstanding, concrete beauty : there is absolutely no serious dispute as to the existence of Beauty, a shared sensation, a poetic emotion shared by millions of men, from Paleolithic and Egyptian Art to Modern Art, from China to Europe and America.
Beauty does not define itself, it is felt individually and collectively. Individually felt Beauty is only subjective, it only matters to one person ; collectively felt Beauty, shared by the elites and the people alike, becomes objective. Beauty becomes a reality at the level of a larger community that can even extend to the entire Planet. Beauty is simply a fact verified by the experience of thousands of generations of human beings spanning the entire Earth.
One can even argue that of the three fundamental ideas — Beauty, Goodness, and Truth — Beauty is the first that we can discern with certainty in the history of mankind, because Beauty leaves visible traces. When does the idea of Goodness appear ? When does the idea of Truth appear ?
Beauty cannot be defined, it is felt and evolves with the passing of time. The mistake of the Paris Academy around 1850 was undeniably to seek to define Beauty, in abstraction, for all time and all civilizations ; a grievous error, against which the Impressionists very quickly dispelled. They demonstrated that shared Beauty could take other forms.
Beauty can take different forms depending on the culture or civilization. It is recognized as Beauty within its cultural domain, but also often outside it.
Chinese scholarly painting is very particular, it is possible for an individual not to appreciate it, but it would be wrong to speak about it an Art of Ugliness, and it is not deemed as such by the test of time and its confrontation with other cultures, such as the Western. Beautify is simply a fact verified by the experience of thousands of generations of human beings all over the Earth. Leonardo’s painting of the Mona Lisa and its popularity among the peoples of the Far East testify to this universality of the Beauty.
There exists “a sense of beauty, common to all mankind” that transcend fashions, religions, ideologies, and even cultures, even though certain variables specific to a certain culture or period should not be disregarded. The bottom line remains a shared feeling of beauty on a universal scale.
Beauty is identified by intense pleasure, a feeling of happiness, of joy, of a sensual or intellectual nature that overwhelms a person, that is its subjective starting point. This subjective starting point becomes objective when the feeling is shared with a multitude of other people, of different cultures and eras, giving rise to a near unanimous and universal experience of Beauty.
Beauty is certainly a subjective experience in that it is felt individually, but it is objectivized by the convergence of opinion, formulated in the course of time, between the people and the elite. It is this common opinion the people and the elites, this shared experience, which objectivizes and verifies Beauty.
It is individuals’ preferences that are subjective. Subjective is a person’s preference for Romanesque frescoes or international Gothic art over Italian Renaissance painting, or preference for landscape or genre painting over religious painting.
If someone had told Fra Angelico, Raphael, or Rubens that Beauty does not exist and is a purely subjective matter, they would have shrugged.
The Beautiful is certainly a subjective, individually felt, but it is objectified by the synthesis of the multiple opinions of peoples and their elites.
Not only is the sense of Beauty a matter of experience, a common heritage of mankind spanning periods and cultures, but Beauty can be experienced even after the ideologies that inspired art works at a certain period of time, in a specific part of the Earth, have died as active beliefs.
There is no need to believe in the Spirits or Gods of the Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus or in Buddhas in order to appreciate the beauty of cave art, or the art of ancient Egypt, Greece, India, or Southeast Asia.
Likewise, the representations of God and the world prevailing in Christian churches, that have been alive and deeply meaningful to the peoples of Europe for over a millennium, may no longer make sense for a very large majority of the peoples of Western and Northern of the Europe in the 21st century. The fact remains, however, that those peoples, like other peoples in other cultures, can recognize Beauty in art works whose symbols are no longer ideologically meaningful or even appear absurd, to them. Beliefs change but the sense of Beauty remains.
Beauty is therefore an experience fact observed throughout the history of civilizations.
Beauty is certainly an idea, but for centuries it was not an ideology. And even less its polar opposite, Ugliness. The many ideologies, most often of a religious nature, that have inhabited men’s minds for thousands of years have used the idea of Beauty to support the most diverse and even opposite beliefs.
Beginning in the second half of the 20th century, the ideological and political elites of the West, all atheists, decided to impose the belief that Beauty does not exist, and to force people to believe that Ugliness is a positive, commendable quality. Official contemporary art is the proof : ugliness has become an ideology, the correct ideology of globalism. The most “enlightened” segment of the population is urged to commune with the Ugly and the Absurd, to wallow in it with delight, and to revel in its distinction and conceptualism.
The assertion that Beauty does not exist and is purely subjective, is a false idea, conceived and propagated during the second half of the 20th century for ideological and economic motives.
The ideological motives are, in particular, that such relativism allows one to justify the official Art of the Ugly and that Ugly Art is a criterion distinguishing the Enlightened from those who are not. Man can indeed invent ideologies or beliefs that negate Beauty and Goodness. This ability to make up the most diverse and even contrary beliefs is what sets apart mankind from animals.
Evolution it may be, but not necessarily progress. It can be, in fact from certain aspects it is always and inevitably a regression. The ability to invent Beauty has met its opposite, that of inventing Ugliness. And even, as in official contemporary art, to set it up as a rule, a doctrine. The capability to do Good is inseparable from that to do Evil. And the formulation of truths opens the door wide to lies.
Another ideological motive for globalism is the destruction of civilizational and cultural identities, a desire to standardize humanity in order to better control it. This is why contemporary globalist art has no roots whatsoever in any culture on Earth. The disappearance of differences is programmed, except for a few reserves for inferior humans, animals and rare plants. Long live bio-diversity. But make way for the robotic man.
Beyond ideological motives, this finding also makes it possible to manufacture and sell the Ugly, which is a wonderful deal. And that is not the least reason for its success. The official, state-sponsored Contemporary Art, the art of the great International Cultural Organizations, goes hand-in-hand with the high capitalism of merchants and financiers, and with the “philanthropic” Great Foundations that derive therefrom. Foundations for can profit from the Beautiful as from the Ugly. And if the Ugly is more profitable than the Beautiful, they will not hesitate for a second. They can even make you believe that ugly is beautiful. And while waiting for your conversion, they make you believe that it is legitimate and above all supremely intelligent. Because the more the potential buyer gapes open-mouthed at the Work of Art, the deeper he will open his wallet.
As for the general public: "we can make people swallow anything" said Marcel Duchamp. Yes, it's true. Not necessarily that "people swallow anything", but certainly that people do not dare to criticize and condemn the "anything". Be Soft, be Zen, in the name of Soft and Zen, and fashion, "we can make people swallow anything".
Lots of people present there tastes, religious beliefs and desires during the cruise :-).
Spent a very hot and humid afternoon snapping cruising cars and walking around the classic car shows during the 26th annual, 2021 Woodward Dream Cruise. It suppose to be the largest one day car cruise in the world, traveling 16 miles through 9 cities. It is estimated that 1.5 million people attend it, with 50,000 cars cruising!
Royal Oak, Michigan
Don’t worry, I am not becoming religious but here in Ireland there are so many churches that it is impossible not to photograph them.
As it is not mentioned in any tourist guides or listings I found the modern St. Patrick’s church by accident. During my last visit in 2015 I did notice the old church but as the gates were locked I could not gain access and was therefore unaware that there was a new modern church beside it. This time I noticed a small narrow lane off Eyre Square [St. Patrick’s Avenue] and at the end of the lane I discovered an open gateway which provide access the church grounds and then I discovered that there were two buildings. There is also a third entrance at Foster street.
This time I paid two visits to the church in order to experiment with two different lenses. For this the second visit I used a Voigtlander 15mm ultra-wide-angle lens. The other lens was a Zeiss Batis 25mm.
The original church was built in 1842 but later modified making it less ornate. More recently This former church has been modified to provide two floors of accommodation for its present use as a hall, a change of use which continues a social and community function. The ashlar limestone front elevation to this simple structure displays finely detailed Gothic Revival features and gives it an imposing presence. The high quality of carved and cut-stone details in the various elevations and window and door openings adds interest to the building.
These idols were immersed in this river many days before ! Below the image which I had been seen in water ie inverted side for this idol ! A local under thirteen boy saw me and ran and ask me to have a snap of this idol this way ! he then pray to god and put back the idol in water !
OK, lets try this again... same picture, but this time I removed all the MASSIVE dust/snow spots from the picture. Other then the Sepia toning, it was pretty much straight out of cam, and I didn't pay enough attention.
So, lesson #1 - Daytime variable ND lapse images work best in high wind scenarios, but that also means stuff hits your lens, so make sure you clean up the picture before you post it !
Sorry for the repost, but I couldn't leave it as it was.