Aging
On this day Cléa and I had a great time. The morning began with a visit to the Giacometti Museum, where we saw his amazing elongated sculptures of the "walking man" for the very first time.
We spent a sunny afternoon in one of Breton's Crepe restaurants near Montparnasse, and then decided to get closer to the tower (called “The black cigarette of Paris”) itself - Cléa wanted to choose a birthday present for me.
As soon as we got closer to the skyscraper, I felt a trembling feeling inside - it was the very place I was looking for my photo. The bright sun, cutting through the complex structure of the building, left bright spots on the stairs, walls, and floor, and dark corridors were wrapped with saturated shadows.
I found myself in the right moment, in the right place, and right next to my Muse. I asked Cléa to pose for me a bit. "A bit" turned into an hour of Cléa’s walking up and down the stairs, posing in the sun, and other modeling delights.
But it was worth it.
The result of this hard work was this, in my opinion, incredible picture.
The first thing that catches my eye is the geometry of the composition - a white rising line of the parapet cutting the space into pieces, zigzag-shadows from the handrails, perpendicular to the lines of the steps - such a dance of the sun on concrete and metal.
A little later, the look begins to stop at the details that fall out of the composition: a woman, partially absorbed by the darkness, probably looking for an exit from the Montparnasse Bienvenue railway station with her luggage on wheels, barely visible brand of cheap clothes at the top, and, finally, the names of clothing brands, which can be recognized with great effort on the bags of the main characters. And, of course, the presence of a mask on each visible face, as the trademark of 2020.
And yet, I see in this scene something more than a harmonious visual image. Even if this meaning is far-fetched, I am happy to realize that by some inexplicable coincidence, objects and characters caught in the lens of my camera can express a certain idea by themselves.
I called this photo "aging" because of the stairs, which symbolize the ascent through life to a certain point in it. It can be just the arithmetic middle of life, or the moment when the life-watch begins to count down. So after that point, the descent begins.
A young girl in a white shirt is barely halfway to that very turning point. At the same time, an elderly woman has left all these ascents and descents behind - she has only two steps to take to leave this staircase. The young girl walks carefully, a little uncertain, and the old woman steps with confidence, as if she can't wait to get to the end.
Also on this day:
