There are moments sometimes when I think that most of my little world is explored and that the next corner is just going to hold the same promise as the thousands of corners i already know. These are the most horrible moments, because they show a stagnation and a contraction of my little mental universe. I am very afraid of these moments and try to work towards a place where the darkness opens up again, and where light can be seen. I look for moments where I realize that not all is explored, not all has ended. (And all this does not mean, of course that i am some sort of thrill seaker, it is just that i enjoy a certain level of balance, stagnation is not balance) These happy and enlightning experiences can be really wonderful. They can be tiny; like discovering a new way to draw a line, or enormous; like a new way to draw a line. Today was one of the enormous experiences.
I bought some nice and slow film yesterday (50ASA) and some happy and fast film (1600ASA) and after the great experience with the audience at the louvre, i was ready to take slow pictures of the entrance hall at the Metropolitan, some slow pictures of some art, as well as some flashless, but superfast pictures of the Metropolitan visitors. How would they differ from the ones at the Louvre? Many visitors at the Louvre were American, would many visitors at the Metropolitan be European?, French. My little excursion took me to the Robert Lehman Collection, because of the date i had with Joséphine Eléonore Marie Pauline de Galard de Brassacede Béarn, princesse de Broglie, by Ingres (1975.1.186). Ok, i was certainly not the first one to take pictures here, but it was just very pleasant. There are several Gems in the Lehman Collection. Some of them in the darker rooms, "Portrait of a young man" by Hans Memling (1975.1.112) being one of them (there are several Memlings in the Collection, or even just the background in "Saint Eligius" by Petrus Christus (1975.1.110), what a masterpiece. So the Lehman Collection was a great experience. There were some visitors there, some guards, who seem to be trained to escape from cameras. I felt as if i had a gun and not a leica at times. They would just see me move that thing and gone they were. So i had to sneak up on them. Making no noise, coming from the back. It was a bit like hunting. The American Wing was quite a pleasant place to visit too, but then i took the stairs. Yet instead of taking pictures of the great entrance hall, i went into the Asian Art Collection wing. I know this sounds really silly, but in the six years in New York, I somehow never managed to find my way to the depth of the The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Asian Art Collection. The experience was spectacular. It was as if a large hand picked me up very softly and placed me in a completely different museum, with clocks running much slower, with fewer visitors, with incredible, beautiful, beautiful sculptures. It was just room after room filled with georgeousness. And it just did not make any sense to look at any of this work through the camera. It was almost as if the statues disappeared when approached with this "new technology" firlefanz. So fast film or slow film, i just had to put the camera aside and just slowly, and quietly explore. Schopenhauer remarked in "Aphorismen zur Lebensweisheit" that the English language describes joy as a selfreflective task. One Enjoys Oneself in Paris. Since my experience was so good that the exploration was pure joy, i obviously Explored Myself in the Asian Art Collection of the Met. Pure Joy.
The Japanese Wing was so perfectly arranged. The reading room. WIth three monitors, and seven chairs was just such perfect oasis of harmony... All I can say is "Ah". I am just not even going to start to describe the places that are or art that is... there on the second floor of the Met. The Chinese Garden (with unbelievably beautiful rocks) is worth a visit alone. I am not going to write about any of this. Maybe later, maybe once I went there several times. I think i have a new favorite place at the Met. And yes, it was this moment, that lastet for maybe three hours that just reminded me that i know absolutely nothing, that i have seen absolutely nothing yet. This moment reminded me that there is so much i will never even know existed. And this moment made me very, very happy.
on a completely differnt note, my photoshop (a real shop, not a piece of software) here on 94th street, (i recommend) will now scan my pictures at a higher resolution. ("Ultra " instead of "High") and so things are looking brighter on that front too. I am not going to get paper prints of my photographs anymore. I will only order the one or two per roll that actually are ok. Please tell this to my friends the trees.
There are some beautiful trees in Central Park, btw, especially in the wintertime, now that they are bare. We have some beauties here. Take a look.
Ok, i am going off topic here.
My Jade Tree, which i grew from a two leaf baby to a 20inch monster will need some grooming in the next few days. Does anybody know anything about wiring little trees? She went wireless for a while, but i think we will need to work on some serious reshaping. So she can breathe again.
Have a wonderful evening. All the best.
Seated Ganesha, 14th15th century