View allAll Photos Tagged existentialism
Week 2 Dogs (2) (1006 – 1010)10/06 – 10/10/2019 ID 1009
Henry Koerner American (born in Vienna, Austria), 1915-1991
Under the Overpass, 1949
Oil on Masonite
In 1938, Henry Koerner immigrated to America from Vienna to escape persecution by the Nazis. Koerner later learned that his family members were among the millions of Jews who were systematically murdered in Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. The artist described how that personal trauma and the general destruction wrought by the violence and chaos of the war made him feel that “Reality had turned into surreality…’normal’ life into existentialism.”
Under the Overpass is a meditation on the transience of life and pain of loss and death. The changing colors of the leaves and the streaks of rust on the overpass evoke time and decay. What looks like an urban streetcar or trolley could represent the train that transported the Koerner family to the concentration camp. Scholars believe the artist’s mother is the crying woman in the yellow dress as well as the woman on the train (sitting next to his father). The scene is intentionally ambiguous. His magic realist style—visible in the painting’s hyper-realistic details, improbable shifts in scale, and elimination of shadows—creates a low-frequency sense of confusion and unease in the viewer.
Marion Stratton Gould Fund, 2012.33
From the Placard: Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Koerner
Jonas Daniël Meijerplein 08/01/2018 17h55
An artificial aurora borealis in the center of Amsterdam. One of my favorite objects of the 2017-2018 version of the Amsterdam Light Festival.
Amsterdam Light Festival
Amsterdam Light Festival is an annual light art festival in Amsterdam. Artists, architects and (light) designers from all over the world bring their light artworks and installations alive during the festival every winter. The artworks are placed alongside two routes. Each route has their own theme, set of artworks and visitor experience. Water Colors, the boat rout, displays big monumental objects and offers visitors the chance to experience the art from a water perspective. Illuminade, the walking route, shows interactive and innovative installations from upcoming designers in the Plantage neighborhood.
Celebrate winter, with art, light and water!
www.amsterdamlightfestival.com
Light Matters
Artist: ACTLD (ACT Lighting Deisgn)
Location: Jonas Daniël Meijerplein
ACTLD created the new media installation Light Matters, illustrating the existentialism of light, this year’s theme of the festival. By sailing on the canal, you can enjoy the artwork in a contemplative way surrounded by ambient sound. From the park, as a pedestrian, you will live an immersive and more intimate experience.
Flowing light
Out of the darkness, a flowing moving light appears in between the trees, dancing in the middle of the sky, like a mirage. An invisible surface catches light and keeps it as the only visible element, creating an immersive experience. A cloud of light, brought down to earth, floating above the spectators, between sky and water.
Rare light treasures
Since the beginning of time, light has existed in its most existential form providing comfort and enchantment. More and more, artificial light tends to steal the thunder of natural lights and darkness. These natural phenomena are hiding nowadays in pure darkness like a diamond in a mine. To reveal these marvelous pieces of natural light into the heart of the city, Light Matters proposes a travel around the world and further. Rare treasures from the universe, the northern skies, the deep sea, the center of the earth and more... will float above us reminding people how much Light Matters. You can continuously be mesmerized by the versatility, power and beauty of light, which has been around for so much longer than man.
ACT Lighting Deisgn (ACTLD) is a Belgian based design agency founded by Koert Vermeulen in 1995. Today, the agency is specialized in lighting, visual and environmental design. Their portfolio includes light designs for interiors, buildings and outdoor spaces, as well as temporary lighting design and installations for festivals, ceremonies, shows and events. Innovation, personal experience and sustainability make up the core of the agency’s design practice.
Their international designs range from a light and water show in Las Vegas (Le Rêve, since 2005) to the
lighting of the opening and closing ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore (2010) or the
Christmas lights on Regent Street in London (2015).
Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man II (1/6), 1960, bronze, 188.5 × 27.9 × 110.7 cm (National Gallery of Art)
...is a Summerstroll...
Yes, this one is a bit dirty, yet that is Nature...
His Name is Wallace, he´s the Sweetheart of my Parents and he sure knows "how to do it"... While sailing through Hardships not Everybody kan easily face with me, he has the Gift to make a thoughtful Man smile for no Reason - what`s the best Reason, I guess?
You know I´m a konstruktive Existenzialist and to my Surprise I learn more from the Lightheartedness of those Animals right now, than from my Brothers in Time...?!
A thoughtless Summerstroll with this little Raskal makes Everything all right for an Eyeblink...
*
In Reminiscence of the Novel, the well known Song and that funny Soulsailor above! ;O)
[My first - and last - "Doggy-Pikture" by the Way...]
Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man II (1/6), 1960, bronze, 188.5 × 27.9 × 110.7 cm (National Gallery of Art)
In this shot the wooden cultivated flower box (sorry, don't know the flowers) is meant to show the analytical cultivated psychology of Sigmund Freud. The wild dandelions around are meant to show the the more "feeling" phenomenology/existentialism started by Edmund Husserl
Portrait from Eva Schlegel & sculptures from Thomas Stimm
Seen in the exhibition
BETWEEN REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING
Finiteness & Eternity
Admont abbey – Museum of contemporary art
6 September to 4 November 2012
Curator: Michael Braunsteiner
Birth, life and death, remembering, fading and forgetting: the boundaries and the spaces in between. That is the subject of this exhibition. Some areas of the museum display works from the Abbey’s own holdings, drawing on the wealth of objects available. Others reveal the subject naturally inherent in them in the manner of a zoom. Different genres begin to communicate with each other. Past, present and future interweave:
In the furnishings and books of the baroque library and in the museum of natural history, you can find all of the questions of “Remembering and Forgetting” that interest us – and quite probably several answers, too. In the museum of contemporary art, current art on the topic communicates with historical books. In P. Gabriel Strobl’s museum of natural history, stuffed animals, ethanol-preserved specimens, countless plants and insects appear to be alive – and yet they are all long dead.
Only human intervention has saved the specimens from decay and rot. The fight against the ravages of time is also evident in the museum of art history. We try to preserve the finest art works for as long as possible, in most cases for many years and even centuries. But not for ever. Against the backdrop of the philosophy of existentialism, the paintings and prints of Hannes Schwarz (b. 1926) explore the depths of this important topic.
The baroque columned hall presents the multimedia experience of the Dramatic Poem, generally believed to be unperformable, to the music of Robert Schumann’s “Manfred”. The poem is based on a text by Lord Byron, originally conceived as an Anti-Faust. This work, directed and visualised by media artist Johannes Deutsch in 2010, and only performed three times at the Düsseldorfer Tonhalle, is concerned with a man who believes his life to be at an end, begging to be able to forget and finally dying from grief. Original drafts and storyboards give an insight into the creation of this total work of art.
Everything has an expiry date. Without exception. And in the end? What then?! We human beings are all different. Some believe that it’s all over then. Others say they will be reborn into this transient world. Christians believe and hope – believe in God and hope for eternal life after death. And some believe quite different things. Everyone thinks that they know that they are right. What do you think?
Humankind has pondered these questions from the very beginning. They are focal topics above all in religion, philosophy, science and art. Admont Abbey with its richly varied museum and library is the ideal place to explore the most burning, timeless and topical questions of our human existence.
This piece, (and the one shown on the previous slide) is more of a Bourgeois inspired, cathartic work. I wanted to keep the form contorted (schiele-style), but bring it back into the more human side of things aesthetically. I kept the deep crimson colours, and used ink, acrylic paint, clay, and compressed charcoal on the canvas backing.
I wanted this to be an expression of how existentialism and existential thought makes me feel, rather than what it means. I wanted to break away from the stoicism of conceptual art for a little while.
Rondreis West Amerika met Djoser ...
Hier werken van Lucien Freud ...
Lucian Michael Freud (Berlijn, 8 december 1922 – Londen, 20 juli 2011) was een Britse schilder van Joods-Oostenrijkse afkomst. Hij was een kleinzoon van Sigmund Freud en was de vader van schrijfster Esther Freud en modeontwerpster Bella Freud.
Het werk van Freud behoort tot de hedendaagse kunst en het neorealisme. De bekende criticus Herbert Read noemde hem ooit "de Ingres van het existentialisme".
Naast portretten en naakten schilderde Freud ook bomen en planten. Vaak figureert een hond of een plant op de schilderijen van mensen.
Freud wordt ook wel gezien als een exponent van het existentialisme, de geschilderde modellen lijken niet echt aanwezig, hebben een blik die vooral naar binnen gericht is. De kijkrichting is meestal naar een punt buiten het schilderij. De naakten zijn vaak in een zeer exposerende positie afgebeeld, de geslachtsdelen vragen prominent de aandacht. Het werk wordt daarom soms confronterend gevonden.
Het werk van Freud is duidelijk autobiografisch, zoals dat van Pierre Bonnard of Balthus, maar met soberder kleurgebruik. Freud wordt door voorstanders als één van de grootste kunstenaars van deze tijd beoordeeld, maar er zijn ook kunsthistorici die zijn schilderwerk niet van deze tijd vinden, evenals felle tegenstanders. Het werk brengt hoge prijzen op: een portret van Kate Moss uit 2002 bijvoorbeeld 3,9 miljoen pond in 2005. Het schilderij Benefits Supervisor Sleeping heeft in New York een recordbedrag van 30 miljoen dollar (19,4 miljoen euro) opgebracht, het hoogste bedrag dat ooit voor een werk van een nog levende kunstenaar op een veiling is betaald.
Zie verder bron: nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Freud
Het Getty Center is een gebouwencomplex in Brentwood, een wijk in het westen van Los Angeles, waarin onder meer een deel van de collectie van het J. Paul Getty Museum en de wetenschappelijke instellingen het Getty Research Institute en het Getty Conservation Institute gehuisvest zijn.
De verzamelingen van het J. Paul Getty Museum gaan terug op de privécollecties van de oliemagnaat Jean Paul Getty, die daarvoor in 1953 een museum in de wijk Pacific Palisades oprichtte. Het Getty Center, waarvan de bouw in 1997 voltooid was, werd ontworpen door de Amerikaanse architect Richard Meier, in Nederland bekend door het stadhuis van Den Haag. De verzameling voorwerpen uit de Klassieke Oudheid bevindt zich sinds 2006 weer in Malibu in de Getty Villa. Het gebouw uit 1974 is een imitatie is van de Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum. Zowel de Getty Villa als het Getty Center worden beheerd door de Getty Trust.
De verzamelingen van het Getty Museum omvatten het volgende:
Fotografie
Kunsthandwerk
Oudheidkundige (kunst)voorwerpen
Schilderijen
Tekeningen
Verluchte handschriften
because I always use to forget the lyrics, I prefer in the meantime to play instrumentals only, with a kazoo in my mouth; what's the name of that memorizing disorder? Alzheimer? - the youtube version with further links www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNHq9oWdzKM - some know the lyrics :-)
Albert Camus: "I recognize only one duty, and that is to love."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus
Albert Camus (November 7, 1913 – January 4, 1960) was an Algerian-born French author, philosopher, and journalist who won the Nobel prize in 1957. He is often associated with existentialism, but Camus refused this label. On the other hand, as he wrote in his essay The Rebel, his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism. On the subject of his belief or not in God, he writes in the third volume of his notebooks: "I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist."
Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 in Mondovi, Algeria to a French-Algerian settler family. His mother was of Spanish extraction. His father, Lucien, died in the Battle of the Marne in 1914 during the First World War, while serving as a member of the Zouave infantry regiment. Camus lived in poor conditions during his childhood in the Belcourt section of Algiers. In 1923, he was accepted into the lycée and eventually to the University of Algiers. However, he contracted tuberculosis in 1930, which put an end to his football activities and forced him to make his studies a part-time pursuit. He took odd jobs including private tutor, car parts clerk and work for the Meteorological Institute.
Camus was a pacifist. However, he was in Paris to witness how the Wehrmacht took over. On December 15, 1941, Camus witnessed the execution of Gabriel Péri, an event that Camus later said crystallized his revolt against the Germans. During the war Camus joined the French Resistance cell Combat, which published an underground newspaper of the same name. This group worked against the Nazis, and in it Camus assumed the nom de guerre "Beauchard". Camus became the paper's editor in 1943, and when the Allies liberated Paris, Camus reported on the last of the fighting. He was, however, one of the few French editors to publicly express opposition to the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima soon after the event on August 8, 1945.
In the 1950s Camus devoted his efforts to human rights. In 1952 he resigned from his work for UNESCO when the UN accepted Spain as a member under the leadership of General Franco. In 1953 he criticized Soviet methods to crush a workers' strike in East Berlin. In 1956 he protested against similar methods in Poland and the Soviet repression of the Hungarian revolution in October.
He maintained his pacifism and resistance to capital punishment anywhere in the world. One of his most significant contributions to the movement against capital punishment was an essay collaboration with Arthur Koestler, the writer, intellectual and founder of the League Against Capital Punishment.
nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1957/cam...
This photograph, captures a moment of profound human experience. The stark contrasts and dramatic lighting amplify the emotional tension, symbolising a journey from darkness to light, ignorance to knowledge, or despair to hope. The individuals, seemingly isolated within the dark environment, grapple with a task or challenge, their collaborative effort in manipulating the illuminated panel underscores the humanist belief in the power of human connection and collective endeavour to overcome adversity.
The photograph's impressionist qualities further enhance its emotional impact. The soft, diffused light creates a gentle glow, highlighting the fleeting nature of the scene and evoking a mood of contemplation. The momentary capture of the individuals in motion suggests an ongoing narrative, while the interplay of light and shadow adds a layer of sensory experience, emphasising the ephemeral nature of life. These impressionist elements infuse the scene with a sense of fleeting beauty and emotional depth, capturing the transient nature of the human experience.
Through the lens of expressionism, the image conveys raw emotions and visceral feelings, amplified by the dramatic contrasts of light and dark. The stark contrasts and dramatic lighting, characteristic of expressionism, evoke a visceral emotional response. The large, illuminated panel against the dark background symbolises the tension between clarity and ignorance, truth and the unknown. The visible textures and shadows amplify the emotional impact, suggesting a raw, unfiltered experience.
The photograph also resonates with humanist ideals, emphasising the value and agency of human beings. The individuals, engaged in a collaborative effort, highlight the importance of human connection and cooperation. Their shared goal, represented by the act of holding the light panel, underscores the humanist belief in working together to overcome challenges. The focus on human figures, their physical presence, and engagement, celebrates human creativity and the capacity to shape one's environment.
Albert Camus - The Stranger
Vintage Books V-2, 1970
Cover Artist: Leo Lionni
Published in the British Commonwealth as "The Outsider"
"This book was set on the Linotype in Janson, an excellent example of the influential and sturdy Dutch types that prevailed in England prior to the development by William Caslon of his own designs, which he evolved from these Dutch faces. Of Janson himself little is known except that he was a practicing type-founder in Leipzig during the years 1660 to 1687."
Garcin:
‘Alors, ce ca l’enfer. Je n’aurais jamais cru... Vous vous rappelez: le soufre, le buchee, le gril... Ah! Quelle plaisanterie. Pas besoin de gril: l’enfer, c’est les Autres.’
Jean Paul Sartre, En Huis Clos, 1943.
All elements of this image were photographed by myself with a Nikon D850 and the Nikkor 24-70mm/F2.8, except for the unedited photo's of the fire and the sofas, they were downloaded from Adobe Stock.
The satyrs were taken at the Devil's House in Arnhem.
2012
Billboard design
This is one of 9 images I've submitted for a competition called "Art Takes Times Square". Essentially, it's a competition to get my art shown on billboards in Times Square. I'm super excited about this contest and I'll be posting more images in the coming days.
Imagine this as a huge billboard. I ask you, is that cool or what?
If you'd like to support me in my quest, please vote aka "collect" me here: ashleyanderson.artistswanted.org/atts2012
Thanks!
©Ashley Anderson
I can hardly help myself returning to Lincoln's MP Gillian Merron's refusal to munch a fluoride tablet with this artist's impression of the occasion.
In my view, the whole thing's a scream!
Here's a letter I wrote to the Lincoln evening paper about her activities.
Unfortunately it wasn't published. So the Lincoln natives will have no idea about the great difference 'twixt them and her.
SIR -
Your MP spends a lot of time in unfluoridated places, like London. And abroad.
Naturally, like any human being, I was concerned to realise that Gillian Merron is deficient.
Lack of fluorine might mean she would have to take time off from democratically representing Mr Blair's views, to see the dentist.
I sped along to her surgery to make her take a fluoride tablet, containing one milligram.
Today [on Friday 11th November 2005] she will have the chance to vote on new legislation (yes, more!) allowing water companies to blame the health authorities entirely for their decision to feed you the same amount in each litre of their product.
Her reaction to my milligram of fluorine was rather different, though.
She did not take the optimum amount when I told her to, and indeed eyed my free health plan rather suspiciously.
Instead of getting my fluoride in her face, she seemed to expect me to get out of her space.
I cannot imagine why she would not give up this insignificant right to control what goes in her mouth, for the greater good of Britain's suffering little children (sob).
Will her vote reflect the official view, or that of a real person such as herself?
Will her choice be guided by highfalutin' political theory, or by the common sense she demonstrated on the above occasion?
I think you can guess.
Gleetings. I will tell you a story.
It is the dead of the night, under a blood red sky, somewhere.The Tony Christie Monster is lost, and in despair.
Suddenly, he meets, as out of nowhere, a lonely Troll, who is playing at being Leslie Crowther.
"Ho, there, stranger !" cries the Troll. "Come on down !"
"Er, er..." mutters the Tony Christie Monster, unsure.
"Your starter for ten ! It's a crackerjack !"
The Tony Christie Monster is frightened. He has a little accident, also cries.
"You look just like Peter thingie..." gasps the Troll, realising that this is the case.
"No ! No ! Please...is this the way to Amarillo ?"
The Troll is confused. Should not he, as Leslie Crowther, be asking the questions...
"I can tell you the way to San Jose..." he offers, but the Tony Christie Monster can no longer be reached on this plane.
"Oh, pish...." says the Troll, sadly.
Walk Tall !
This shot on Museum of Contemporary Art.
Portfolio flic.kr/s/aHsk7LUokY
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I am Camera Assistant & Grip. At present, I am learning English in Los Angeles. Also I am looking for job & internships.
Photography is my lifework.
Filmography
Happy New Year
・Japan Association of Audiovisual Producers award 2014:Personal Communications Section
・Mito Short Film Festival :Second Prize
To me
・The 9th NHK Minimini Video Award:Gateway to success Prize
Experience
ARRI FLEX 16ST
ARRI FLEX 16SR
ARRI FLEX 16SR2
ARRI FLEX 16SR3
ALEXA
RED ONE
SONY F900
SONY FS700
SONY F3
PANASONIC AJ-HDC27F
PANASONIC AG-AF105
CANON XH-A1
CANON EOS 60D
CANON EOS 7D
CANON 5D Mark Ⅱ
Finalcut Pro
My brother is the worst wardrobe remix photographer. Truly terrible. Oh well - here's what I wore yesterday, to do 6 hours of improv, debate about existentialism, busk for 2 hours, go on a 3-way date, & nap in the library.
Red dress - H&M
Thick black leather belt - H&M
Red leather bag - vintage
Black heeled boots - gift
"Dare"
"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself completely." - Soren Kierkegaard
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
National bird and symbol of the United States of America
Location: Lock and Dam No. 14 Recreation Area, Le Claire, Iowa
Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR Zoom
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure time: 1/1000 sec.
ISO speed: ISO-200
Focal length: 300mm
35mm eq. focal length: 450mm
Lighting: Natural lighting, no flash
Handling: Handheld with VR on
Photoediting: Background replacement (cloning/blurring, Magic Wand, linear gradient tool) with respective cloning/blurring around eagle’s perimeter, minor level adjustments, and added text in Photoshop Elements 5. Essentially uncropped and eagle largely unedited except for a little sharpness.
Personal notes: At first I was pretty frustrated with this photo because I liked the eagle, but hated the background. Over the past few weeks, I’ve become more comfortable with Photoshop Elements 5, and I’m thrilled that I was able to clean up the background. This is the first photo that I have enlarged to a 20" x 30" poster print. It was satisfying to be able to make myself a motivational poster from one of my own photos.
An excerpt: His Divine Eminence did not mention who the creator of that fireball is. God's creation will start with something which was already created. His Divine Eminence said, ‘There was a ball of fire. It was commanded to cool down.’ All these planets were once part of the sun. This system, galaxy, rocks and every single planet - everything was fragmented from the Sun. Everything came from the Sun - including the Moon.
rariazgoharshahi.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-truth-about-b...
1. Gas war resistant pram, 2. Shooting at Dam square Amsterdam, 3. Children on sledges pulled by a car , 4. Horse Taxi - Nationaal Archief / Collectie Spaarnestad www.flickr.com/people/nationaalarchief/ - my poster was created with the mosaic maker of bighugelabs.com - a flickr-connected-tool
Luigi Pirandello was a Nobel laureate Italian playwrite and novelist in the first half of the 20th century. The mask was a recurring leitmotif in his literary works. Among many other famous plays he wrote Six Characters in search of an Author and It is so if you think so. His works greatly influenced playwriting in general. He was also considered a precursor to Existentialism.
Gilded in the oak savanna.
In the leaning hills, where the summer sun turns the grassland to tinder, the savanna is a wind chime, rustling a harmonious lullaby like a new deck of cards in nimble fingers. Grasshoppers and mayflies and the chaff of newly dried seed catch in the sun. A dry, hot blizzard in an amber streetlamp.
The Arastradero Open Space Preserve is home to rattlesnakes, coyotes, and mountain lions and innumerable flavors of insects and birds, yet it is the trees that bring me here time and again. Before the axe and the wheel came to this land, enormous oak savannas like this one stretched across the midwest, the southwest and here along the west coast.
But the axe and the wheel did come and the savannas left. I like to think of the craggy and twisted forms that remain as wounded but unbent descendants of the stalwart soldiers who resisted the blade and the advance of civilization to hold the dusty California soil to the ground and to provide shade for the coyotes and mountain lions and rattlesnakes that weave through the tall grass of the American Veldt. As these sentinels slowly march from mother to child up and down the wind-tousled steppe, we flit about the outskirts of this preserve as insects, building and gnawing and living and dying. I hope that’s all we’ll ever do.
I came to the Arastradero preserve to connect with a particularly beautiful oak I’d passed (and photographed) on hikes before. I found her on the hillside as ever, arms outstretched, singing in the late evening breeze, fluttering fingers of bright green.
As I stood for a while here on the hillside, gilded in the afternoon, alone with my thoughts but for the oak and the whisper of the breeze and the hum-drum clicks and tweets of grassland animals, I thought, “I’ve been away too long,” and was reminded of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, and I’ve been thinking about it since.
I came back to the preserve to reconnect with a spot where I’d taken an old photo. Only now do I realize that same photograph was made nearly a year ago to the date. Oliver (who now runs and speaks and laughs) was with us then, asleep as an absolutely tiny three-month-old infant.
The change over the last year in Oliver provided, for me, a stark contrast with the constancy of the natural world, of these stalwart trees. How little they’ve changed. How little indeed will they change over the next century. Long may they roam on these hills and long may they feed my heart.
------------
In the leaning hills.
I’ve cared a great deal about taking photographs for a long time. When people ask me how long I’ve been “into” photography, I often don’t have an answer. I can vividly remember becoming interested in my father’s camera when I was a kid. No idea how old.
In point of fact, my mother was cleaning house recently and asked that I sort through some old papers of mine. Tucked in a bunch of junk were loads of old prints made with a Vivitar point and shoot given me by my parents sometime while I was in fifth grade. The landscape/candid ideas are all there, but the execution was a long way from developed (and often still is)!
I found a renewed passion for image making when I was in college and then again in graduate school, although if truth be told, it’s been relatively steady for most of my life and those moments of renewed energy are likely just an interpretation of mine in hindsight.
I often return to the question of “Why?” Why should photography feel a bit like breathing and why should I derive so much satisfaction from it? I have loads of standard answers that you see on photoblogs and photo news sites ad naseum, revolving around physical/emotional enjoyment and the risk/reward of creativity and sharing, but these are pretty unsatisfactory.
I’ll tell you that the social networking and community aspects of photography are not what drives me to carry a camera to beautiful places. Neither is building a portfolio of images what puts my feet out the door. Although I run this blog and make every effort to post frequently, I often find myself going to great lengths to make images I find interesting and then leaving them on the hard disk at home for months or years at a time.
This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy every part of the process, from shooting to publishing; it’s just that, if those weren’t a feature of the photography/photoblog world, I would still shoot.
There is something about images and cameras that has always spoken to me, something in the process of making an extraordinary image that drives me across states and out of bed at strange hours. Images lie at the boundary between real and surreal, between ordinary and fantastic. They can tell the truth, they can lie, but good ones never let you know which. I find it thrilling to compare the different truths of the reality and the image made after. I like to imagine for a moment that the world is as strange as photographs make it seem, then I realize it’s far stranger.
I photograph because that’s who I am, it’s an authentic expression of myself. I mean authentic in the existential sense—that I am doing what comes naturally and being true to who I am. Sometimes explanations and reasons are trite and you just have to accept that you are what you are. Simply put, photography is.
Of course, existentialism takes for granted that, to the mind, the material world presents itself as incongruous and absurd. And maybe that’s what I find so damned rewarding about photography; the world is messy and strange and absurd, but there is a great harmony and undeniable humanity in standing amongst the nodding, tawny, and wind-threshed grain, catching on a wafer of silicon a few trillion photons that have spent eons bouncing around the interior of our sun, all the while inundated with the smells of flowering plants and buzzing insects, luring one another to sex and death in the burning heart of the afternoon, in the leaning hills.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ ʒɛʁmɛ̃ de pʁe]) is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Its official borders are the River Seine on the north, the rue des Saints-Pères on the west, between the rue de Seine and rue Mazarine on the east, and the rue du Four on the south. Residents of the quarter are known as Germanopratins. It forms part of the Latin Quarter.
The areas cafés include Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore, le Procope, and the Brasserie Lipp, as well as many bookstores and publishing houses. In the 1940s and 1950s, along with the rest of the Latin Quarter, it was the centre of the existentialist movement (associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir). It is also home to the École des Beaux-Arts, Sciences Po, the Saints-Pères biomedical university center of the University of Paris, the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, and the Musée national Eugène Delacroix, in the former apartment and studio of painter Eugène Delacroix.
History
The Middle Ages
Until the 17th century the land where the quarter is located was prone to flooding from the Seine, and little building took place there; it was largely open fields, or prés, which gave the quarter its name.
The Saint-Germain-des-Prés Abbey in the center of the quarter was founded in the 6th century by the son of Clovis I, Childebert I (ruled 511–558). In 542, while making war in Spain, Childebert raised his siege of Zaragoza when he heard that the inhabitants had placed themselves under the protection of the martyr Saint Vincent. In gratitude the bishop of Zaragoza presented him with the saint's stole. When Childebert returned to Paris, he caused a church to be erected to house the relic, dedicated to the Holy Cross and Saint Vincent, placed where he could see it across the fields from the royal palace on the Île de la Cité. In 558, St. Vincent's church was completed and dedicated by Germain, Bishop of Paris on 23 December; on the same day, Childebert died. Close by the church a monastery was erected. The Abbey church became the burial place of the dynasty of Merovingian Kings. Its abbots had both spiritual and temporal jurisdiction over the residents of Saint-Germain (which they kept until the 17th century). Since the monastery had a rich treasury and was outside the city walls, it was plundered and set on fire by the Normans in the ninth century. It was rebuilt in 1014 and rededicated in 1163 by Pope Alexander III to Bishop Germain, who had been canonized.
The church and buildings of the Abbey were rebuilt in stone c. 1000 AD, and the Abbey developed into a major center of scholarship and learning. A village grew up around the Abbey, which had about six hundred inhabitants by the 12th century. The modern rue du Four is the site of the old ovens of the monastery, and the dining hall was located along the modern rue de l'Abbaye. A parish church, the church of Saint-Pierre, also was built on the left bank, at the site of the present Ukrainian catholic church; its parish covered most of the modern 6th and 7th arrondissements. The fortifications of King Philip Augustus (1180–1223), the first recorded walls to be built around the entire city, left Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés just outside the walls.
The Saint-Germain Fair
Beginning in the Middle Ages, Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés was not only a religious and cultural center, but also an important marketplace, thanks to its annual fair, which attracted merchants and vendors from all over Europe. The Foire Saint-Germain was already famous in 1176, when it allocated half of its profits to the King. The fair opened fifteen days after Easter, and lasted for three weeks. The dates and the sites varied over the years; beginning in 1482 it opened on 1 October and lasted eight days; in other years it opened 11 November or 2 February. Beginning in 1486, it was held in a portion of the gardens of the Hôtel de Navarre, close to the modern rue Mabillon. There were three hundred forty stalls at the fair of 1483; Special buildings were erected for the fair in 1512, which contained 516 stalls. The fair was also famous for the gambling, debauchery, and the riots that ensued when groups of rowdy students from the nearby university invaded the fair. The buildings burned on the night of 17–18 March 1762, but were quickly rebuilt. The fair continued annually until the Revolution in 1789, when it was closed down permanently.
The Renaissance
At the end of the 16th century, Margaret of Valois (1553–1615) the estranged wife of King Henry IV of France but still officially Queen of France, decided to build a residence in the quarter, in lands belonging to the Abbey near the Seine just west of the modern rue de Seine, near the present Institut de France. She built a palace with extensive gardens and established herself as a patroness of literature and the arts, until her death in 1615.
17th–18th centuries: theatre and the first cafés
In 1673 the theatrical troupe in the city, the Comédie-Française, was expelled from its building on Rue Saint-Honorérue Saint‑Honoré and moved to the left bank, to the passage de Pont-Neuf (the present-day rue Jacques‑Callot), just outside the Saint‑Germain quarter. Its presence displeased the authorities of the neighboring Collége des Quatres-Nations (the present Institut de France) and in 1689 they moved again, this time to the rue des Fossés des Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés (the modern rue de l'Ancienne‑Comédie), where they remained until 1770. The poor condition of the theater roof forced them to move in that year to the right bank, to the Hall of machines of the Tuileries Palace, which was much too large for them. In 1797 they moved back to the Left Bank, to the modern Odéon Theatre.
The first café in Paris appeared in 1672 at the Saint-Germain Fair, served by an Armenian named Pascal. When the fair ended he opened a more permanent establishment on the quai de l'Ecole, where he served coffee for two sous and six deniers per cup. It was considered more of a form of medication than a beverage to be enjoyed, and it had a limited clientele. He left for London, and another Armenian named Maliban opened a new café on the rue de Buci, where he also sold tobacco and pipes. His café also had little commercial success, and he left for Holland. A waiter from his café, an Armenian named Grigoire, born in Persia, took over the business and opened it on rue Mazarine, near the new home of Comédie-Française. When the theater moved in 1689, he moved the café to the same location, on the rue des Fossés‑Saint‑Germain. The café was then taken over by a Sicilian, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, who had worked as a waiter for Pascal in 1672. He renamed the café Procope, and expanded its menu to include tea, chocolate, liqueurs, ice cream and configures. It became a success; the café is still in business.[4] By 1723 there were more than three hundred eighty cafés in the city. The Café Procope particularly attracted the literary community of Paris, because many book publishers, editors and printers lived in the quarter. The writers Diderot and d'Alembert are said to have planned their massive philosophical work, the Encyclopédie, at Procope, and at another popular literary meeting place, the Café Landelle on the rue de Buci.
The Treaty of Paris
A significant event in American history took place on 3 September 1783 at the Hotel York at 56 rue Jacob; the signing of the Treaty of Paris between Britain and the United States, which ended the American Revolution and granted the U.S. its independence. The signing followed the American victory at the Siege of Yorktown, won with assistance of the French fleet and French army. The American delegation included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay. After the signing, they remained for a commemorative painting by the American artist Benjamin West, but the British delegates refused to pose for the painting, so the painting was never finished.
The French Revolution
Because of its numerous printers and publishers, Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés, and especially the Cordeliers Section of what is now the 6th arrondissement, became centers of revolutionary activity after 1789; they produced thousands of pamphlets, newspapers, and proclamations which influenced the Parisian population and that of France as a whole. The prison of the Abbey of Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés, a two-storey building near the church, was filled with persons who had been arrested for suspicion of counter-revolutionary motives: former aristocrats, priests who refused to accept the revolutionary Constitution, foreigners, and so forth. By September 1792, Paris prisons were quite full. The former king and queen were political prisoners and were moved from the Tuileries Palace to the old Knights Templar towers on the right bank, where there was less risk of rescue or escape. France was at war; the Duke of Brunswick had just issued his menacing manifesto, stating that if the former monarchy were not restored, he would raze Paris, and his troops were only a few days away. Now these political prisoners began to be viewed as a genuine threat, should any of them be conspiring with France's enemies. In what was a planned but inhumane tactic, politicians at Paris sent bands of criminals, armed mainly with pikes and axes, into each prison. Although at least one deputy from the Convention accompanied each band, the results were horrifying. Hundreds of prisoners were cut down in the first week in September. As Englishman Arthur Young noted, the street outside one prison literally ran red with blood. The former Cordeliers Convent, closed by the revolutionaries, became the headquarters of one of the most radical factions, whose leaders included Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins, though both would be run out by ever more extreme factions. The radical revolutionary firebrand, Swiss physician Jean-Paul Marat, lived in the Cordeliers Section.
The Monastery of Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés was closed and its religious ornaments were taken away. The buildings of the monastery were declared national property and sold or rented to private owners. One large building was turned into a gunpowder storeroom; it exploded, wrecking a large part of the monastery.
Another large monastery in the quarter, that of the Petits-Augustins, had been closed and stripped of its religious ornamentation. The empty buildings were taken over by an archaeologist, Alexandre Lenoir, who turned it into a depot to collect and preserve the furniture, decorations, and art treasures of the nationalised churches and monasteries. The old monastery officially became the Museum of French Monuments. The paintings collected were transferred to the Louvre, where they became the property of the Central Museum of the Arts, the ancestor of the modern Louvre, which opened there at the end of 1793.
The 19th century
The École des Beaux-Arts
The École des Beaux Arts, the national school of architecture, painting and sculpture, was established after the Revolution at 14 rue Bonaparte, on the site of the former monastery of the Petits-Augustins. Its faculty and students included many of the most important artists and architects of the 19th century; the faculty included Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Gustave Moreau. The students included painters Pierre Bonnard, Georges Seurat, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, and the American Thomas Eakins. Architects graduated from the school included Gabriel Davioud, Charles Garnier, and the Americans Julia Morgan, Richard Morris Hunt and Bernard Maybeck. The painter Eugène Delacroix established his residence and studio at 6 rue de Furstenberg and lived there from 1857 until his death in 1863.
Haussmann
The vast public works projects of Napoleon III and his Prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann in the 1860s dramatically changed the map of the quarter. To reduce the congestion of the narrow maze of streets on the Left Bank, Haussmann had intended to turn the rue des Ecoles into a major boulevard, but the slope was too steep, and he decided instead to construct boulevard Saint‑Germain through the heart of the neighborhood. It was not completed until 1889. He also began a wide south to north axis from the Montparnasse railroad station to the Seine. which became the rue de Rennes. The rue de Rennes was only completed as far as the parvis in the front of the Church of Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés by the end of the Second Empire in 1871, and stopped there, sparing the maze of narrow streets between boulevard Saint‑Germain and the river.
Oscar Wilde
The quarter was also the temporary home of many musicians, artists and writers from abroad, including Richard Wagner who lived for several months on rue Jacob.
The writer Oscar Wilde spent his last days in the quarter, at the small, run-down hotel called the Hotel d'Alsace at 13 rue des Beaux‑Arts, near the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He wandered the streets alone, and spent what money he had on alcohol. He wrote to his editor, "This poverty really breaks one's heart: it is so sale, so utterly depressing, so hopeless. Pray do what you can." He corrected proofs of his earlier work, but refused to write anything new. "I can write, but have lost the joy of writing", he told his editor. He kept enough sense of humor to remark: "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go." He died on 30 November 1900, and was first buried in a small cemetery outside the city, before being reburied in 1909 at Pere Lachaise.
The small hotel where Wilde died became famous; later guests included Marlon Brando and Jorge Luis Borges. It was completely redecorated by Jacques Garcia, and is now a five-star luxury hotel called L'Hotel.
The 20th century: non-conformism
In the first half of the 20th century, Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés and nearly the whole of the 6th arrondissement, was a densely populated working‑class neighborhood, whose population was declining. The population of the 6th arrondissement was 101,584 in 1921, and dropped to 83,963. In the postwar years, the housing was in poor condition; only 42 percent of residences had indoor toilets, and only 23 percent had their own showers or baths. By 19-0 the population of the 6th fell to 47,942, a drop of fifty percent in seventy years. In 1954 workers represented 19.2 percent of the population of the quarter; 18.1 percent in 1962.
In the years after World War II, Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés was known primarily for its cafés and its bars, its diversity and its non-conformism. The bars were a popular destination for American soldiers and sailors after the war. It was also known as a meeting place for the largely-clandestine gay community of Paris, which at the time frequented the Café de Flore and the Café Carrefour, an all-night restaurant.[12] Because of its low rents and proximity to the University, the quarter was also popular with students from the French colonies in Africa. There were between three and five thousand African students in the city; their association had its headquarters at 184 boulevard Saint‑Germain and 28 rue Serpente. Because of the number of workers, it also hosted an important bureau of the French Communist Party.
Jazz
Immediately after the War, Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés and the nearby Saint-Michel neighbourhood became home to many small jazz clubs, mostly located in cellars, due to the shortage of any suitable space, and because the music at late hours was less likely to disturb the neighbors. The first to open in 1945 was the Caveau des Lorientais, near boulevard Saint‑Michel, which introduced Parisians to New Orleans Jazz, played by clarinetist Claude Luter and his band. It closed shortly afterwards, but was soon followed by cellars in or near Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés; Le Vieux-Columbier, the Rose Rouge, the Club Saint-Germain; and especially, Le Tabou. The musical styles were both traditional New Orleans jazz and bebop, led by Sydney Bechet and trumpeter Boris Vian; Mezz Mezzrow, André Rewellotty, guitarist Henri Salvador, and singer Juliette Gréco. The clubs attracted students from the nearby university, the Paris intellectual community, and celebrities from the Paris cultural world. They soon had doormen who controlled who was important or famous enough to be allowed inside into the cramped, smoke-filled cellars. A few of the musicians went on to celebrated careers; Sidney Bechet was the star of the first jazz festival held at the Salle Pleyel in 1949, and headlined at the Olympia music hall in 1955. The musicians were soon divided between those who played traditional New Orleans jazz, and those who wanted more modern varieties. Most of the clubs closed by the early 1960s, as musical tastes shifted toward rock and roll.
Existentialism
The literary life of Paris after World War II was centered in Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés, both because of the atmosphere of non-conformism and because of the large concentration of book stores and publishing houses. Because most writers lived in tiny rooms or apartments, they gathered in cafés, most famously the Café de Flore, the Brasserie Lipp and Les Deux Magots, where the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and writer Simone de Beauvoir held court. Sartre (1905–1980) was the most prominent figure of the period; he was a philosopher, the founder of the school of existentialism, but also a novelist, playwright, and theater director. He also was very involved in the Paris politics of the left; after the war he was a follower (though not a member) of the Communist Party, then broke with the communists after the Soviet invasion of Hungary, and became an admirer of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, then of Mao-tse Tung. In 1968 he joined the demonstrations against the government, standing on a barrel to address striking workers at the Renault factory in Billancourt. The legends of Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés describe him as frequenting the jazz clubs of the neighborhood, but Sartre wrote that he rarely visited them, finding them too crowded, uncomfortable and loud. Simone de Beauvoir (1902–1986), famous philosopher, the lifelong companion of Sartre, was another important literary figure, both as an early proponent of feminism and as an autobiographer and novelist.
After the Second World War, the neighbourhood became the centre of intellectuals and philosophers, actors, singers and musicians. Existentialism co-existed with jazz and chanson in the cellars on the rue de Rennes. Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Juliette Gréco, Léo Ferré, Jean-Luc Godard, Boris Vian, and François Truffaut were all at home there. But there were also poets such as Jacques Prévert and artists such as Giovanni Giacometti. As a residential address Saint‑Germain is no longer quite as fashionable as the area further south towards the Jardin du Luxembourg, partly due to Saint‑Germain's increased popularity among tourists.
Abduction
On 29 November 1965, Mehdi Ben Barka, the leader of opposition to the government of the King of Morocco, was kidnapped as he emerged from the door of the Brasserie Lipp. His body was never found.
Transportation
The area is served by the stations of the Paris Métro:
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Mabillon
Literature
Many writers have written about this Parisian district in prose such as Boris Vian, Marcel Proust, Gabriel Matzneff (see La Nation française), Jean-Paul Caracalla or in Japanese poetry in the case of Nicolas Grenier. Egyptian writer Albert Cossery spent the later part of his life living in a hotel in this district. James Baldwin frequented the cafés, written about in Notes of a Native Son. Charles Dickens describes the fictional Tellson's Bank as "established in the Saint Germain Quarter of Paris" in his novel A Tale of Two Cities.
Economy
At one time numerous publishers were located in the area. Gentrifying real estate values then intervened. By 2009 many publishers, including Hachette Livre and Flammarion had moved out of the community.
(Wikipedia)
Das Quartier Saint-Germain-des-Prés [kaʀtje sɛ̃ ʒɛʀmɛ̃ de pʀe], kurz Saint-Germain [sɛ̃ ʒɛʀmɛ̃], ist ein Stadtviertel in Paris. Es ist das 24. Quartier der französischen Hauptstadt und liegt im 6. Arrondissement südlich der Seine im Stadtgebiet Rive Gauche. Das zentral in der Innenstadt gelegene Viertel ist nach der dort ansässigen Abtei Saint-Germain-des-Prés benannt und wird vom Boulevard Saint-Germain durchzogen.
Geschichte
Der Namensgeber der Abtei, Germanus von Paris, ließ die Kirche im Jahr 558 AD auf Weideland hinter der Île de la Cité errichten. Daher der Zusatz des Prés, auf den Wiesen.
Das Viertel spielte jahrhundertelang eine wichtige Rolle im Geistesleben Frankreichs. Das dort gelegene Priesterseminar von St-Sulpice (Paris) bildete berühmte Persönlichkeiten aus. Das Viertel galt in der Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts als Zentrum des französischen Existentialismus um die Philosophen Jean-Paul Sartre und Simone de Beauvoir. In Saint-Germain-des-Prés gibt es berühmte Cafés wie Les Deux Magots oder Café de Flore, die teils schon in den 1920er Jahren, spätestens ab den 1950ern, zum Treffpunkt von Intellektuellen und Künstlern wurden. Literaten, Musiker, Schauspieler und Filmschaffende wie Boris Vian, Juliette Gréco oder Jean-Luc Godard wurden zwischen den 1950er und 1980er Jahren mit dem Viertel assoziiert. In der Rue des Beaux-Arts residierte ab 1955 die berühmte Galerie von Iris Clert.
Heutzutage ist Saint-Germain-des-Prés ein Anziehungspunkt für Touristen. Die Bewohner von Saint-Germain-des-Prés werden im Französischen als germanopratins bezeichnet. Dieses Gentilizium steht wie oft im Französischen der lateinischen Wurzel näher als der Lokalitätsname selbst (frz. pré; lat. prātŭm, Wiese, Aue).
Das Quartier im Film
1949: Rendez-vous de juillet (Jugend von heute) von Jacques Becker
1950: Pigalle-Saint-Germain-des-Prés von André Berthomieu
1951: La Rose rouge von Marcello Pagliero
1958: Les Tricheurs (Die sich selbst betrügen) von Marcel Carné
1965: Episode Saint Germain des Prés (in Paris gesehen von...) von Jean Douchet
1973: La Maman et la Putain (Die Mama und die Hure) von Jean Eustache
1986: Autour de minuit (Um Mitternacht ) von Bertrand Tavernier
Das Quartier in der Musik
1950: Léo Ferré bringt das Chanson À Saint-Germain-des-Prés auf einer Schellackplatte heraus. 1953 und 1969 erscheinen jeweils Neuaufnahmen. Auch andere Interpreten tragen das Chanson vor: Henri Salvador (1950), Hélène Martin, Cora Vaucaire, Anne Sofie von Otter (2013)
1961: Guy Béart komponiert Il n'y a plus d'après… (à Saint-Germain-des-Prés) Auch Juliette Gréco hat das Lied in ihrem Repertoire.
1967: bedauert Léo Ferré in dem Chanson Quartier Latin die Veränderung des Viertels im Vergleich zu seiner Studentenzeit von 1930.
1991: Michel Sardou nimmt La Main aux fesses auf, wo er das Viertel als «Saint-Germain-des-Clébards» betitelt.
Das Quartier in der Literatur
1956: Ed van der Elsken: Liebe in Saint Germain des Prés. Schaden Verlag, Köln 1999, ISBN 3-932187-04-0. („vintage reprint“ der 1956 im Rowohlt Verlag erschienenen Ausgabe.)
(Wikipedia)
Screenshots taken from Ernesto Ramirez' Quantified Existentialism blog medium.com/ernesto-ramirez/quantified-existentialism-4c96...
German Party (2) - this time my wife Barbara makes the video - walking around between the musicians of www.chris-and-the-poor-boys.de - lead singer: Wibke Jackson - you can find me sitting among the audience :-) - the complete video (3 minutes) at www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX86iQJXkb0 YOUTUBE
Exhibition view "Francis Bacon and Existential Condition in Contemporary Art", CCC Strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze
© photo Martino Margheri
Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sarte t.co/2gd9OoFhN7 (via Twitter twitter.com/zeninsidezen/status/750663233611104256)
KABK Graduation Festival
Den Haag 2016
“Hauch!” Is a complex installation that develops another dimension. Here the walls are no longer only walls, but “heavens crying drama”. The floor loses its most basic function and becomes a source of life represented by the colourful land of acid green. It blends with different texture tonalities of pink, evoking the essence of human flesh. Spaces are defined by elements representing different existentialisms that are brought on the same line through the videos in which a woman carries out daily activities in which pain lurks, associated with the canon of beauty that goes against nature by confusing the human being.
THESIS: A coffee with Anne
The thesis is built through a dialogue between me and an almost fictional character named Anne, a man dressed as a woman that was close to me during my route here at the academy. Everything takes place in a bar, in front of a coffee, where I tell about myself through my fears, my needs, my dreams about my artistic career.
Chiharu Shiota, site specific installation
Exhibition view "Francis Bacon and Existential Condition in Contemporary Art", CCC Strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze
© photo Martino Margheri
ULTIMA LATET
...the last hour is hidden so better watch them all
let the thoughts trickle by and down into the pool
what wonder to watch them splash and spatter in the trough
and see ultima latet ut observentur omnes above the door
whistling they say soothes the silly agitation of the brain
through the lamplight the flakes flutter down onto the path
the feet also know how to step with deliberation on the ground
while the street lamp glares and the cathedral bells toll
someone's muffled paces crackle on the stony pathway
every pebble every flake every pace every noumenon
every moment is precious and every moment is wasted
it is easy to see that nothing is mine and nothing is yours...
**************************************
ULTIMA LATET
...l'ultima ora è nascosta quindi meglio guardarle tutte
lasci che i pensieri gocciolino via e piombino nella vasca
che meraviglia guardarli schizzare e spruzzare nel abbeveratoio
e vedere ultima latet ut omnes observentur sopra la porta
dicono che fischiare lenisce la sciocca agitazione del cervello
attraverso la luce del lampione i fiocchi svolazzano verso il basso e cadono sul percorso
anche i piedi sanno procedere sulla terra con deliberazione
mentre la lampada abbaglia e le campane della cattedrale suonano
alcuni passi attutiti crepitano sul sentiero sassoso
ogni sassolino ogni fiocco ogni passo ogni noumeno
ogni momento è prezioso e ogni momento è sprecato
è facile vedere che nulla è mio e niente è tuo...
**************************************
ULTIMA LATET
... die letzte Stunde ist verborgen - bleiben wir besser wachsam
Lass die Gedanken tropfen und in das Becken fallen
Welch ein Wunder zuzuschauen, wie sie spritzen und platschen in den Trog
Und über der Türe eingemeisselt: ultima latet ut observentur omnes
Pfeifen sagt man, beruhigt die alberne Erregung des Gehirns
Im Lampenschein wirbeln Flocken auf den Weg
Die Füsse wissen auch, wie man mit Bedacht auf dem Boden schreitet
Während die Strassenlaterne blendet und die Glocken der Kathedrale läuten
Jemandes gedämpfte Schritte knirschen auf dem steinigen Weg
Jeder Kiesel, jede Flocke, jeder Tritt, jedes Noumenon,
Jeder Moment ist kostbar und jeder Moment ist verschwendet
Leicht zu sehen, nichts ist mein und nichts ist dein ...
Le Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France
I headed south to le Cimetière Montparnasse. After the Paris churchyards closed in the 18th century, a full three quarters of a century before the English closed their urban churchyards, four great cemeteries were laid out to the north, east, south and west of the city. Pere Lachaise is the most famous, Montmartre the most aesthetically pleasing, but Montparnasse probably the most interesting. I spent about three hours and three hundred photographs pottering about. Some of the famous graves are easy to find because they are well documented, and visitors have placed tributes on them. For example, the first grave I went in search of, Samuel Beckett's, has metro tickets placed on it by visitors as a mark of having waited for something.
I already knew where Beckett's grave was, but two others in the same section were more difficult, as I did not have exact locations. I eventually found the grave of Phillipe Noiret, an actor I very much admired particularly for his role in my favourite film, Cinema Paradiso, but also for his role in Le Cop, which has criminally never had a DVD release with English subtitles. There were no public tributes on it, merely a plaque from his wife saying 'pour mon Cher Philippe' and a picture of a horse. While I was photographing it, four gendarmes, two men and two women, passed behind me and came across to see why I was photographing it. "Noiret!" exclaimed one of the men, and then "mais pourquoi le cheval?" wondered one of the women. But they didn't stop for me to explain, for I had read an article about Noiret about fifteen years previously in a copy of La Nouvelle Observateur while staying in a hotel in Boulogne, and I knew that he had bred horses in his spare time.
The other grave I had hoped to find in this section was that of Susan Sontag, but I couldn't track it down.
The joint headstone of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir is easily found by the main entrance, and I thought it rather sweet that they were remembered together. Despite all their efforts for existentialism and feminism, it was like a headstone in a quiet English churchyard which might have 'reunited' or 'together in eternity' inscribed on it. I think he wasn't pleasant company, and while she was certainly more intelligent than he was she made intellectual arrogance respectable. I photographed their headstone more out of interest than admiration.
Admiration was at the heart of my search for a gravestone lost in sections 6 and 7 which I think is not found often. It is for the surrealist photographer Man Ray. I was delighted to find it after barely 20 minutes searching. He designed it himself, and in his own handwriting into the cement it says 'unconcerned, but not indifferent', which could be taken as rebuff to Satre and his circle I suppose. Charmingly, beside it like the other half of a book is a photograph of him with his wife and the inscription 'Juliet Man Ray 1911-1991, together again'. Enough to leave De Beauvoir spluttering into her Pernod.
You can read my account of my travels at pariswander.blogspot.co.uk.