Looking down the Avenue d’Olonzac towards the invisible rolling hills with their patchwork quilt of vineyards and woods.
I stood motionless, a shadow with a camera, measuring the passage of time: “Thousand-one, thousand-two … .” Light flowed into the camera, silently burning a portrait of the night into the emulsion of the film. It is a mediation that I have practiced for years. No matter where I travel, eventually, late at night, I am drawn out to photograph the solitude.
La Tour Régine – This is one of four separate structures that comprise Châteaux de Lastours. Originally there were three 11th century fortifications built along the rocky spine of a ridge 300 meters (about 990 feet) above the village of Lastours. Because the sides of the ridge were so steep, it wasn’t necessary to construct a wall surrounding the fortified structures. It was home to the lords of Cabaret who were followers of the Cathar Christian sect. Eventually, the crusade against the Cathars succeeded and the land became part of the kingdom of Isle de France. To affirm his domination of the area, the French king had this fort, La Tour Régine, added.
Lastours was one of our favorite stops when Becky and I had our bicycle touring business in France.
Even though, technically, La Tour Régine is not a Cathar castle, I take poetic license to call it one, because it could not have been built without the slaughter of the Cathar believers.
To separate the planes of the image, I used seven masked layers: path, rock outcroppings, foreground, background and sky, and castle. Most of the adjustments were made to the brightness and contrast of the various masked areas.
My philosophy of life can be summed up as: if you don’t play, you can’t win. The best photos are created when the photographer is engaged with the subject. With people, it means connecting, even briefly, and generating a sharing moment.
That is how I learned that the most powerful words in photography are, “May I take your picture?”
Often, the response is “Why?” This provides the opportunity to introduce myself, tell them what it is about them that I find fascinating, and open a conversation. I want honesty in my photograph, it must be based on an honest interaction when I take the picture.
People have a right to say no and if someone does, I say thank you and move on. The world is full of interesting people and things.
It was a beautiful spring day in Paris and I was walking down a small street behind our hotel on the Rue de Rivoli. I found this group of firemen just finishing practicing getting people out of 1st and 2nd floor windows. It only took my holding up my camera and asking “S’il vous plait?” to get their full attention. They lined up and posed with their reflective helmet face shields down. A great picture which I’ll post some other time.
I motioned to flip up their visors and this is the picture that I got. For me, their faces, half hidden in the shadows, make this a timeless photo.
Valras Plage is an expansive stretch of white sand located where the Orb River flows into Mediterranean Sea. Even though the beach is very popular it is large enough that it is possible to find open space and privacy.
Behind the beach is a stretch of dunes. It is there that I found this agave. It was the simple beauty of the flowering plant, the clear blue sky, the warm light of the late summer sun, and the textures of the sand and grass that called to me.
Sometimes, all that is left of a story of a life or a place is a tantalizing shard.
In the small, wine making village of Azillanet there was an old empty building with faded blue shutters and doors. Its front door looked out on square with a pair of blind blue eyes.
I asked about building, who had lived there and particularly the story about the eyes. What were their significance? No one could tell me.
In my travels around France, I have never seen another door like this one.
While digging through my photo archives I found this self-portrait from circa 1970, give or take about one year. It is from a four photo strip, taken by one of those photo kiosks that dot, or dotted, fair midways and shopping malls.
Many thoughts surfaced as I looked at myself over a span of 42 years.
It literally is the face of a dead man. The human body replaces all of its component cells once every seven years: physically, we are not same person that we were seven years ago. I am six times re-incarnated since that photo was taken.
At the time the picture was taken my life was in shambles or at least, it seemed like it was. Raging hormones and a dysfunctional family life, a common burden carried by many young people, had me riding an emotional roller coaster. I had no idea who I was or what to do. Today, my life is still full of turmoil but, with six re-incarnations under my belt, I have evolved into a survivor: confident in my abilities to weather life’s storms and periodic anguish.
Then, I asked the questions “Who am I?” and “Why me?”
Today, I know who I am for better and worse.
Today, I understand that shit happens: sometimes as the result of my decisions and sometimes just because.
Today, I understand that cause and effect and happenstance applies to good fortune and bad equally. You buy your ticket and you take your ride.
Lastly, as I stared into my youthful eyes I am reminded of those haunting Civil War tin-types. Young men looking resolutely into a future that they can not know.
Good job kid. You’ve made it this far. You’ve had some successes and failures. Ultimately, you laid a solid foundation that your incarnations have built on and now carrying forward.
The Copyist was taken in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, in 1991. I prefer using available light which in this case was a mix of fluorescent and heavily overcast daylight. The painter is reproducing Women Ironing by Degas.
At the time I took this picture, I was under the mistaken impression that the painters working in the Orsay were students learning the style of the Impressionists. It was only much later that I discovered that copyists have a long honored tradition. (1)
When I located the negative for this image I discovered that, despite my best efforts at protective storage, the film was covered with a mildew of some type. Here is an image made from the damaged negative.
My first attempt at restoration was to gently wipe the film strip with an Ilford Anti-Static Cloth. This had no effect. The dirt/mildew was in the form of a hard crust that appeared to be imbedded in the emulsion.
I realized that I needed to clean the film using Edwal Anti Stat Film Cleaner.
When the film was dry I scanned it using a Nikon Super Cool Scan 5000 ED and saved the image as a TIF file. I turned off the ICE spot removal software because it tends to soften the image, i.e. less sharpness.
The resulting image file was significantly cleaner. However, I would still need several hours of spot and scratch removal before the image was ready for the rest of the editing that I wanted to do.
The result was satisfactory for today but I need to find a better way to clean negatives, in particular, how I can avoid scratching the emulsion. Perhaps using a soft fine hair brush to remove the dirt while the film is in the cleaner would do the trick, rather than wiping with the soft cloth.
(1) Never say `fake’. Forget `forgery’. It’s got to be `copy’ or `pastiche’; Iain Gale;
The Independent; 09/05/1995
In preparation for my upcoming exhibition, I’ve been going through my negatives and slides. I’ve been a photographer for over 40 years and only during the the last eight years have I worked exclusively in a digital format. Prior to then I created tens of thousands of images: rough estimate 75,000. I’ve wanted to digitize them but only now got started, prompted by the coming display.
The image above was taken in 2004. Becky and I were driving along a back road in the Languedoc when we passed by a small family crypt. I saw the sheaf of wheat hanging from the locked gate and had to stop to investigate.
Since ancient times, a bundle of wheat has been used as a symbol of fertility and has graced both weddings and harvest festivals. In some cases, the wheat would be formed into figures or geometric forms but it is the simple sheave that captures the spirit of harvest best.
The juxtaposition of the weathered harvest symbol attached to the gate to a crypt was haunting. The reality is that the gate was the only place a farmer could have placed the wheat, the surrounding fields were empty of any other structure or tree.
However, what I saw was a faded reminder of past harvests: crops of grain and men gathered in. Just as the richness of the wheat is reaped, so to are men and women, in their fullness, called back to their source.
My wife and I had the very good fortune to spend time in Olargues.
Olargues is a commune, the most elementary level of government administration, similar to an incorporated village or town in the U.S. The commune is located in southern France: in the department of the Hérault, in the region Languedoc-Roussillon.
Designated one of the Most Beautiful Villages in France, Olargue is a lovely example of a French medieval village. Nestled by the slowly moving Jaur river, the commune is dominated by a 9th century bell tower, once part of a castle.
This picture shows the bell tower and the 12th century Pont de Diablo, the Devil’s Bridge, where, according to legend, the people of Olargues did business with the Devil.
Historical Note:
Olargues had been home to Romans, Vandals and Visgoths, and in the 12th century Cathars. The Cathars were a Gnostic Christian offshoot influenced by Persian theological traditions that had spread from the east through Byzantium. They maintained their own church structure which was divided into two groups, Laity and Perfects. The Laity lived normal lives while the Perfects, a small group of men and women, led severe ascetic lives while maintaining themselves as itinerant workers. The Cathar belief system was at odds with the Roman Catholic Church. Cathars believed in the equality of men and women, that there should be no priests or church buildings, and that there was reincarnation. They allowed contraception, suicide, and euthanasia. In addition, they were opposed to the feudal system
The Cathar belief was wide-spread in Languedoc, a region with very different language, social and historical traditions than the French the Ilse de France, whom they called the Languedoui. By the 13th century, the Pope had his fill of the heretical Cathars. The King of France, looking to add the much richer Languedoc to his possessions, convinced Pope Innocent III that the Cathars needed to be dealt with. Innocent III declared the Cathars heretics and sanctioned a crusade against them. In 1208, the bloody crusade began and by its end 500,000 Cathar men, women and children had been killed and the prosperous Languedoc laid to waste. The region would remain under populated and in decline until the 18th century.
The Devil’s Bridge legend is the residue of that time. A story used to discredit the Cathars of Olargues and justify their subjugation.
Today, there are still many signs of the old Languedoc in Olargues and the region. The old Languedoc language has resurfaced. It is found in the distinctive French accent, the use of the Cathar cross as the region’s official flag, road and shop signs, and a general attitude of disregard for big organizations and the government.
Updated 02/03/2012
Photo image updated to 13″ x 19″ format print.
This April I will have an exhibition of some of my French photos. I’ll announce specifics when the date gets closer.
I’ve started planning and thought that I’d include you in the process.
The first thing that I did was go look at the space and get a sense of what I will be working with. The lighting appears adequate and the wall where the images will be hung is exposed old brick. I like its textures and colors but the wall will compete for attention of the viewer’s eye. In addition, the space is a commons area that has multiple uses. There are bookshelves along a portion of the wall that need to be worked around. Lastly, there are two horizontal wooden beams inset into the wall: one at 6 1/2 feet high and the other 9 1/2 feet. These beams may be used to mount the framed photos.
I’ve created a diagram, shown above, to help me answer several questions:
This is just the start.
