Paris 2006

St Martin's Street, Paris

I love this picture...it's very...very...mmm...Paris.  I think my photography is getting better :)

Vertigo from the Top of the Arc de Triomphe

I took this photo from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  I think it rocks. It made me queasy...but I like spirals.

Voices by C.P Cavafy

Voices

Loved, idealized voices
of those who have died, or of those
lost for us like the dead.

Sometimes they speak to us in dreams;
sometimes deep in thought the mind hears them.

And, with their sound, for a moment return
sounds from our life's first poetry -
like distant music fading away at night.

Me at the Top of the Sacre Coeur

View From the Sacre Coeur

 The Basilique du Sacr� Coeur was perhaps one of my highlights  whilst in Paris.  My beloved and I climbed all the way to the top, braving vertigo, claustrophobia and calf-cramps.  Once at the top the view is just beautiful, although a little daunting.  I really liked the weathered textures of this pillar against the turquoise sky...even though it's not a well composed picture.

Rodin's Lover

I don't think the angle at whichI photographed this piece captured the mood.  It was apparently inspired by Rodin's lover...I think her name might have been Rose.  It's beautiful...that's all I have to say reall.  The sculpture speaks for itself.

Another Detail

I found this detail of the sculpture haunting...I don't know whether the mother is pushing her infant out of hell or draggin him down with her...and why are their infants in hell?  Anyway, this whole piece is breath-taking.

Rodin Museum, 2006, The Gates of Hell, detail

How strange that there should be such an intimate detail on a piece entitled 'The Gates of Hell'.  I love this passionate detail; an embrace stolen before melting into the flames.

Musee Rodin

It is fitting that the first post I write on this blog (after the death of three people beloved to me) should be about sculpture and art.  I find  it rare that there is any other way to express the depths and heights of human emotions and grief is especially difficult to analyse or write about.  In my recent trip to Paris, I visited the Rodin Museum - which was quite sublime. I find Rodin's sculptures evoke both grief, longing, love, loss and (of course) passion so well and they express what words sometimes cannot...the spirit intuits the meaning of a piece before it is thoroughly understood...I think a famous poet said that but my memory is full of holes and I can't remember who! I took this photograph because this part of the sculpture moved me;  it conveys strength and vulnerability all at the same time.