Saturday 29 November 2008

Under

lots more under-people here

Trafalgar Square on a freezing, rainy day when the wet pavement shone like a cold, still lake. Clicking away, thinking: this surface is so good, there’ll surely be something of interest. Looked at what I’d got and thought at first there was nothing. Then, looking below the people instead of straight at them, realised there was a lot – a brief, clear view into the underworld peopled by all our doppelgangers.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a fantastic series, Jean!

Anonymous said...

Terrific slideshow. I was wondering if you intended to invoke this?

jiggins said...

These are great.. please tell me a bit more about how you get this effect.. and do you have a blog following button that you can add to your page so that we may follow your blog more precisely? thanks! :)

Rosie said...

wonderful view of london...

leslee said...

Brilliant, Jean. :-)

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

I've just seen these and commented over there. So amazing that you saw and were able to capture these reflections so brilliantly. The whole sequence assembled is stupendous- I'd love to see them wall-size.

Dale said...

I agree. These are brilliant. I hope you've seen the wonderful poem they inspired at via negativa?

Leon's current assignment said...

Somehow the great clouds made the day all right, a gift of splendor as they sailed over our heads.

-- May Sarton, excerpt, Journal of a Solitude, December 1st

As above, so below: you have poetically captured this essence.

Just beautiful. Haunting.

I'd like to see them as a giant wall montage, as previously noted. They'd create an arresting atmosphere. Wonderful.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic! Absolutely wonderful. I particularly love the couple with the shopping trolley.

Lucy said...

It's a wonderful series. I don't know why but I find that upside-down world rather comforting...

Anonymous said...

Oh I love these. I am not a visual person at all but these speak to me - make me think, wonder about parallel worlds and yes, doppelgangers.

I would love these hanging from the wall running up the staircase of my house - I'm sure no-one would ever get to the loo in time if I hung them there - so mesmerised would they be.

Fantastic!

Anonymous said...

At a certain point
in the cycle of revolt,
dilute motes of
pavement ascend
the upended bellies
of toppled monuments
whose weight,
having depended
overlong
on the public fabric
and shoe leather, has
broke its bonds,
stridulous bronze relaxing
into a moment of peaceable
reflection,
in the way nascent peals
straddle the mouths of bells,
each time they
roll over their yokes.

Or Dave, maybe Jean’s thinking of this?

http://tinyurl.com/5smoox

Dave King said...

Fabulous, I could look at them for hours - I shall have to come back when I've more time. Thanks for posting them, though.