Barjac, France

I’ve decided to start doing a Photo of the Day feature, in which I sift through the photographs I’ve taken over the years (and also recent ones) to find and share something interesting… photos that evoke a particular emotion, or present a certain view of the world, or perhaps an image that reveals something more about me as a person.  These photos will most likely be tweaked by me in Photoshop, to add a further element of intrigue and/or mystique. 

This photo was taken last year in Barjac, France, near where I lived.  Barjac is an immensely quaint French village of old buildings and cobbled streets, with some magnificent views across the countryside.  For 11 years it was also the home to the eminent artist Anselm Kiefer, who lived and worked in a vast 35-hectare studio just outside Barjac.  I read last year that he had donated his Barjac property to the Guggenheim, but in the latest article I found on the topic, it appears that the plans have not come to fruition.

With this shot, I was inspired to capture the geometry of the buildings and the windows, accentuated by the hanging street light on the leftmost building.  To me this image is somehow whimsical and quirky, with an Olde World nostalgic feel.  It’s easy to imagine that this scene stepped out of a different portal of time than the one we currently inhabit.  The lack of humans causes a sense of wonder and curiosity; who lives here?  What are their lives like?  What do the insides of their houses look like?   The emptiness of the photo also gives me the sense of being watched, either by people hidden behind the curtains, or by the silent buildings themselves, who are ever the witness to the drama unfolding within their walls and on the streets below.  Old buildings always seem to retain a sense of having absorbed history, impartial to events both momentous and mundane.