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Ganesha in France
Ganesha in France We’re looking at a shop-window in which we can distinguish an image of the Hindu god Ganesha flanked by two attendants. At the same time we see the facades of French houses reflected in the windowpane. Two typical cultural images, one Indian, the other French, unexpectedly merged into one. It leaves us…
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Reflection in the Himalayas
Reflection in the Himalayas The snow-capped mountain in the sunlight is the image reflected in the window through which I took this photograph. In reality, the snow-capped mountain, which is the Nanda Devi, is behind me. If I were to turn round, I would see it through a window opposite the one through which I…
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Eclipse
Eclipse The sun shines through a window into a room. The rays fall onto a stainless steel water filter and are reflected on the wall behind it where they produce this intriguing image. The image, with its bright halo around a dark centre, reminds me of the solar eclipse I once observed. But there are other…
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Painter’s palette
Painter’s palette Aboriginal artists from Arnhem Land in the north of Australia don’t really use a palette. Most of the time they work while sitting on the floor and the space around them gradually gets more and more stained with the clay paint they use for their barks. On the photo we see a worktable…
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Clay art
Clay art Unlike the marvellous creations of the termite or the crab, which we have been able to admire in the posts over the past two weeks, human creations can sometimes be called art. This is due to humanity’s ability to think, to reflect on itself and the world. Human creative works are, to a…
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Crab art
Crab art Whilst the termites in last week’s post impressed us with their magnificent architecture, here it is the pattern created by tiny crabs on the beach that appeals to our aesthetic sensibilities. A sensibility that is probably alien to the dog that walked right through it, although his or her footprints do complement the…
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Ant art
Ant art Ant hills can be impressive, but these termite mounds in the north of Arnhem Land are nothing short of astonishing works of art. Many a bird’s nest can fill us with equal awe because of its ingenuity, but it is above all the sheer size of these termite mounds that is so astonishing.…
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Blue Goa
Blue Goa Sun, sea, beach and fun (with plenty of beer), that is Goa for most holidaymakers. Here then we have a beach not crowded like the ones in north Goa where all the tourists flock, but an empty one, breathing an atmosphere of pristine quietness. Not godforsaken though, as we can see. They are…
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Green Goa
Green Goa Judging from my posts of the last few weeks, you may think it is the presence of the catholic culture, brought to the region by the Portugese, that attracts me to this country in the first place. This may partially be true, but there is more. Like the whole stretch of land between…
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La gaia religione
La gaia religione If it hadn’t been the cause of so much misery and death through the ages, one would think when seeing these images, that religion is a joke. Not ‘die fröhliche Wissenschaft’ here, but ‘die fröhliche Religion’. The unlikely collection of elements brought together in the image above is a true source of…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
