Pictures of Pictures (part III – Paris)

Going back to the subject of Pictures of Pictures – first broached last fall – let’s stop by Paris, which is absolutely full of museums – which means paintings, statues, maps, murals, and lots of photographs of all of it.

These pictures are from one of my favorite places – the Museé national du Moyen Age, also known as Museé de Cluny. My mom and I first discovered this museum, possibly because of the guide that came with our city museum passes, in May 2002. I think we went back at least once after our first visit. When my class was in Paris for about two days during study abroad, I didn’t make it there in time to go through the museum again, but I did slip into the gift shop to gaze through the first doorway towards the first gallery. I think I also managed to snap a few self-photos in the courtyard. My last visit was solo and very restful after nearly a month on the road.

It’s amazing how much craft can go into every day items from stained glass windows to combs, triptychs to paper, and the decoration that turned a cold stone building into something more.

The tapestries here are not the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries which are also at the museum in their own gallery. Instead, they’re a few of my favorites – at least, ones I was able to get both light and time with (no flash photography is allowed in the museum).

Pictures of Pictures (part I – Phoenix)

“Pictures of pictures” is my attempt at a catchy name for photos of artwork. In other words, any image I’m taking a picture of – a painting, a sculpture, a document, stained glass – sometimes even another photo. One reason to do this is to remember the information, though usually it’s to remember the image itself. This is probably the one I plan the least – often, I don’t realize what I’ve done till afterward. Plus, it’s not quite as clear cut a category as, say, people, or planes. At the time, I’m thinking, “Oh, wow – I want to see this again!” or “That is so cool, I want to remember it!” Some trips generate crazy amounts of “pix of pix” or POP photos; other trips, just a handful or none at all. Museums are great for this, and also graffiti, billboards, and even advertisements.

Surprisingly, I’ve already turned up a number of pictures from Phoenix, partly due to my summer photography class and partly to researching historical neighborhoods for class. There was even enough for a whole post just on Rosita’s. Many of the remaining POP photos fell into two categories – ones I’d taken for my summer photography class and ones I’d taken for class assignments in the journalism program.

Photography class

First, playing with a borrowed DSLR at night. I took an awesome online photography class from Karen Russell. I needed a DSLR to take the class, difficult on a student budget. In a deeply generous move that made taking the class possible, I was loaned a Canon Rebel. The experience was amazing. I learned so much from the class, the camera, and the combination. There’s a whole new photographic world out there I knew nothing about which now fascinates me! This is a downtown building, Trinity Cathedral, which lights up nearly every evening for at least a few hours. I wanted to try to capture the windows.

Another lesson of photography class (which also bled neatly into journalism) was to notice the details. That lesson had me taking a few pictures like these before I knew our first photo assignment for our media class.

From Abstracts

From Abstracts

Now, for me, photography’s a learning experience, one I’ve far from mastered! But that’s the thing about learning – it’s a journey itself, and for this case, the picture to remember it by are built right in.