Blog
90for90 – Vajrasana Buddhist Centre03.22 / The Original and the Copy02.20 / The Architecture of Intuition10.19 / Up and Down09.19 / Watching Paint Dry06.19 / Gathering Light04.19 / Signs of Life03.19 / The Colour of Water05.17 / Take it as it comes01.17 / Torrential Sunshine11.16 / Where is Everybody?11.16 / Appropriate Light, Serpentine Pavilion10.16 / No Drama10.16 / Every Day is a Good Day09.16 / Sunset + 20 minutes09.16 / Appropriate Light, Turner Contemporary Margate08.16 / In Context04.16 / Fuzzy Boundaries03.16 / Is it possible to photograph the lights going on and off?07.15 / Waiting for a Solar Eclipse03.15 / In Praise of Darkness10.14 / Sensing Spaces01.14 / Nocturnal Change06.13 / The Logistics of Space05.13 /
90for90 – Vajrasana Buddhist Centre03.22 / The Original and the Copy02.20 / The Architecture of Intuition10.19 / Up and Down09.19 / Watching Paint Dry06.19 / Gathering Light04.19 / Signs of Life03.19 / The Colour of Water05.17 / Take it as it comes01.17 / Torrential Sunshine11.16 / Where is Everybody?11.16 / Appropriate Light, Serpentine Pavilion10.16 / No Drama10.16 / Every Day is a Good Day09.16 / Sunset + 20 minutes09.16 / Appropriate Light, Turner Contemporary Margate08.16 / In Context04.16 / Fuzzy Boundaries03.16 / Is it possible to photograph the lights going on and off?07.15 / Waiting for a Solar Eclipse03.15 / In Praise of Darkness10.14 / Sensing Spaces01.14 / Nocturnal Change06.13 / The Logistics of Space05.13 /
Up and Down 09.19
I knew that this scene reminded me of something the instant I saw it. We were at the Archabbey Pannonhalma in Hungary to photograph the new lighting installation by Speirs+Major which had been developed alongside an architectural refurbishment by John Pawson. The lighting was being focussed at this stage, final adjustments being made and I was waiting for the go ahead to photograph. I had to be quick, I didn’t have time to change the lens but I liked the picture that resulted.
Last month at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam I saw the painting ‘Iconaclism in a Church’ by Dirck van Delen (1630) and realised agin what it was that I had half remembered, this was the picture that I had seen somewhere before. The painting shows a church in August 1566 where Protestants are tearing down a statue from its plinth, countless statues and alterpieces were destroyed in churches throughout the Netherlands, a scene rarely depicted in dutch art.
At Pannonhalma it is a scene of restoration and illumination, the opposite in many ways and it makes a nice echo from the painting.