Category: {photography}

Photography

Reflections of Narcissus

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Untitled (Adrian Kissing) 2007.

The icon of male vanity returns again in a surreptitious form via this photograph by Brandon Herman from a new exhibition, My Vacation with a Kidnapper, which opens today at the Envoy Gallery, NYC, until April 19, 2008. Herman’s photography brings to the surface (so to speak) the homoerotic subtext of the Narcissus myth. Despite the most common rendering of the story being one concerning the romance between Narcissus and Echo, there are other versions:

An important and earlier variation of this tale originates in the region in Greek known as Boeotia (to the north and west of Athens). Narcissus lived in the city of Thespiae. A young man, Ameinias, was in love with Narcissus, but he rejected Ameinias’ love. He grew tired of Ameinias’ affections and sent him a present of a sword. Ameinias killed himself with the sword in front of Narcissus’ door and as he died, he called curses upon Narcissus. One day Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in a spring and, in desperation, killed himself.

Some earlier (and favourite) artistic representations follow.

Continue reading “Reflections of Narcissus”

Sam Amidon in Manchester

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The phrase “breathless hush” might have been created for the rapt anticipation that greets some of the artists who play the Cross Street Chapel in Manchester. The circular space is a perfect arena for detailed electronica of the kind presented by Machinefabriek and company last year, or acoustic performances such as tonight’s astonishing set by American singer and guitarist/banjo player Sam Amidon. We were fortunate this evening to be treated not only to virtually the whole of Amidon’s All Is Well album but he was also accompanied throughout by a string quartet playing exclusively for this concert.

All Is Well is a collection of traditional songs of the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music/“Old Weird America” school and Amidon himself comes from a musical family immersed in these folk traditions. As a result he swims in this world like a natural and when you add his equally natural talent plus Nico Muhly‘s string arrangements you have something very special. Some of the more poignant songs tonight were, if anything, better than their equivalents on the album, not least for the incomparable atmosphere that live strings bring to the occasion; when he opened with Saro I was on the verge on tears it was so wonderful. All Is Well is released by Bedroom Community, possibly the best label in the world right now with a small roster of essential artists that I keep intending on writing about at greater length for Arthur. Tonight’s event made that intention all the more urgent and necessary. Best gig of the year already? We’ll see…. Buy his album!

• Sam Amidon on MySpace
• Sam Amidon on YouTube

The Palais du Trocadéro

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More ephemeral architecture and also another example of old exposition architecture. The Palais du Trocadéro was designed by Gabriel Davioud for the 1878 World’s Fair and until its demolition in the 1930s faced the Eiffel Tower across the Seine after that edifice had been constructed as the entrance arch for another fair, the Exposition Universelle of 1889. Davioud designed other less extravagant works for Paris, including the Fontaine St Michel which I photographed during one of my visits there in 2006.

The Trocadéro is something of a heavy-handed confection, ostensibly “Moorish” in that Orientalist fashion favoured by 19th century architects. The numerous photographs of the place give it the same quality of ghostly grandeur that so many these long-demolished buildings possess; we’re able to look at a very real place which has now vanished utterly. The bridge in the picture below still stands, however, and the balcony of the Trocadéro’s replacement, the Palais de Chaillot, gives great views of the Eiffel Tower and the river.

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Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Evanescent City
• Ephemeral architecture
• Winsor McCay’s Hippodrome souvenirs