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Nude scene
A modern living-room with a view. A sleepy man in his chair. A naked woman moves through the frame with her attractive voluptuous figure. The man doesn’t even bat an eyelid. What an inconceivable fool! This line of thought came to my mind when I took the picture. In actual fact this is what I…
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Blue nude
Throughout his long creative life the female figure, dressed or nude, has been a favourite theme of Henri Matisse. In hundreds of paintings, drawings and sculptures he has sung the beauty of woman. The last ten years of his life he was bedridden and couldn’t paint anymore but his creativity remained unbroken. From this period…
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Fränzi
More than a century ago, the painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was part of “Die Brücke”, a small group of German artists that with their work wanted to form a bridge (Brücke) between the old art and a new style of painting which became known as expressionism. For a few years around 1910, a young girl…
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Young and beautiful
Except that these girls are clearly sent out by their parents to get something in their baskets, they’re as young and radiant and beautiful as the children on last week’s photo. What I wrote there holds good here in almost the same way. Here’s how the story could well continue for this girl after only…
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The best of youth
I came upon them down in the valley. They interrupted their play for a moment to gather round me for a photo. A confluence of barely restrained joy of life. Their looks are open, positive, curious, without a trace of suspicion. And each one of them is unmistakably her- or himself. Life at its best.…
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Cramped for room
You wouldn’t think looking here at houses in one of the most posh parts of Mumbai. Still that’s what it is. And that’s how it is. The luxury mansions are just around the corner. At home you may be cramped for room but outside there is still space to fly your kite. And dream. Photos…
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Banganga
The neighbourhood of Walkeshwar on Malabar Hill harbours a rare 1000 year old water tank called Banganga. The tank and its peaceful surroundings let you almost forget that you are in the heart of the city of Mumbai in the 21st century. A man – or his wife – has washed his underpants in the…
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Bastion walls
This is not the image that comes into your mind when you think of cosmopolitan Mumbai, brimming over with life. It looks more like a closed bastion that has armed itself against the seething waves of dangerously high tides. I love old walls with their weather-beaten faces. They breathe history, tell stories, let dream of…
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Spitting image
That is to say, the spitting image of the pan chewer who embellishes with his creations the pavements, roads, platforms, corridors, staircases, and, if you are lucky enough in passing a chewer at the right moment, your clothes or shoes. Temples and shrines are generally spared. That’s why tiles with images of gods and goddesses…
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Holy tiles
Compared to the ISKCON temple of last week’s post, this nearby little roadside shrine looks rather cheap and shabby. Still, it probably represents Indian popular aesthetics better than its majestic neighbour. It has taken me awhile but I have come to appreciate this kind of simple religious display. The daring colour combination (like so often…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
καιρός remembered 