Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Le temps change tout...

I remember seeing graffiti scrawled onto the side of Château de Chambord that read: Le temps change tout (Time changes everything). Although I hated the fact that someone had defaced the chateau, I did find the quote fairly a propos.

The above photo is a foreground/background example that plays with the theme of time and change—not at Chambord, but at a the Louvre. A few years ago, the Louvre hosted a temporary exhibition that juxtaposed sculpture from its permanent collection with works by modern artists. Here, the "permanent collection" sculpture, although hundreds of years older than the its "temporary exhibition" counterparts, seems to look on with casual curiosity, secure in the knowledge that she will outlast the plaster newcomers and their plastic wall clocks.

Is this just a self-indulgent post or is there a point?

Mostly self-indulgent, BUT the "foreground" lesson here may be that when you see something you want to photograph (e.g. the plaster men holding clocks), you might try taking some photos of that thing in relation to a foregrounded object (e.g. an onlooker). This fits with my "observing the observer" exploration of foreground/background.

On a side note:
I rediscovered the above image when I was looking for something in black and white to merge with my corrupted digital files. I took the "Rothko on acid" photo from my last post, rotated it, added the black and white photo on top of it, and then used "pinhole light" blend mode to create this strange image:

So my two monitors now have that photo and this one:

I doubt the images will have universal appeal and I know that vivid colors (as a wallpaper) may start to get on my nerves, but I guess I am fascinated by the random glitches of corrupt files because they still have symmetry and they would be very difficult to produce intentionally. I like that they were born from a catastrophic computer failure for which an entire team of professionals has no explanation.

Share your own "foreground" photo for the March Monthly Special (currently with a whopping three contributions).

5 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I remember seeing the same inscription at Chambord, up on one of the turrets. I was actually looking for a picture of it, which is why I stumbled upon your blog. If I remember correctly, it's actually written "LE TEMPS CHANGE TOUVT" (with a v as the u) which would indicate that it was graffiti'ed quite a while ago.

marc said...

I've got a photo of it stuck on one of my filing cabinets, but I took it on film, not digital. You're right about the spelling, but I suspect that the Latinate stylizing may be just for effect. But who knows? It's not as if I've conducted a forensic analysis or anything.

Unknown said...

I've been meaning to go back and take a snapshot.. of that, but also of the large number of graffiti which is actually dated 1700's and 1800's. I think it was from the wear, as well, that I thought it might be old.

jacklinemelda said...

We are the best Write My Essay 24/7 Services company providing law Write My Essay for Me Cheap as our articles are unmatched and comparable to none since our professional writers understand requirements for completing this type of assignment.