…for the changes that are rushing our way? Are we settled to knowing that the world that we are leaving for your children to inherit is a safe and a clean home for them to build their future and their children’s future in? Or are we mostly living in denial?
I often wonder if the impressive and extravagant architecture of cathedrals is meant to distance believers from what is heavenly and saintly, almost belittling mere humans in the face of religion. But when I think of religion, the image that comes into my mind is a special place in nature that is so inspiring that it draws on all the awe that lives in me and leaves me in sympathy with the mysteries of life, not scared, not feeling smaller, why would it? Aren’t love and kindness the essence of religion?
Sorry for my absence in the last week! I was on a photography trip inside the heart of Yunnan (autonomous region is South West China). I have posted some portraits from the trip on my other blog if you are interested in viewing them.
But here we are back in Tuscany! Amazing feeling it is for me to dive back into images of Italy, art, beauty and human creativity after being for one week inside the heartland of China. The contrast is stark and it proves to me that humans and art are inseparable, no matter what the circumstances are. The simple people of Yunnan live art through their dress, the building of their homes, their tribal ways, and there so as much beauty in that as there is in this marvelous artwork of Siena in Tuscany.
The most baffling thing about ancient history is the search for the real reasons as to why the ancients did what they did…
After being amazed, impressed and dazzled by a 7km avenue in Luxor lined perfectly with sphinxes, I had to ask myself the question: “why would they do that?” It seems far too precise to be a whim of an architect, or the egoistic wish of a king, too well planned to not have a greater purpose. I had a similar feeling walking in between the avenues of megalithic rocks in Carnac, France, where huge megalithic rocks were transported from far away places and placed in rows, tens of kilometers long at equal distances to form avenues across fields and valleys.
I am not really looking for answers as much as I am enjoying the search for them. The process of asking with all the awe and wonderment is what makes history so attractive, to mystery dream, to be lost in the search for truth…
There is something so entirely remarkable about the statues and the art you see from ancient Egypt. Putting aside any feelings of eeriness and discomfort, the art feels somehow, yes, alive. It radiates, it vibrates, it holds your gaze, it stirs deeply…
And after doing all of that, it makes you think, question, dwell and contemplate. Someone once put out the rather obvious but profound observation that can be easily missed: “Why are teeth never shown in ancien Egypt? What is that all about?”
The seated statues of Nofret (Nefret) and Ra-Hotep (noble prince and Pharaoh’s son and princess) from the 4th Dynasty of Egypt were photographed in the Cairo museum, they stand about 1.2 meters high and are remarkably well preserved. The light on Nefret’s face is from a passing by guide’s flashlight.
Today we drove by the huge sculpture on Century avenue in Shanghai they call “light of the east” and as it was sunset, the sun was peaking through the huge stainless steel beams (normally silver colored, but Lea and I decided to make them blue), so we just had to stop. As Shanghai sees itself as s city of modernism and the gateway of China into the future, you find much modern art installations and sculptures around the place. What you see here is only a piece of this huge structure, that at some other point I will show as a whole.
In this blog I will show a background photo of Lea taking an iphone photo of me taking a real photo and then showing it to me through the car window. It made for a fun effect!
