Noémie Goudal 'Observatoires' 2015

I can't get these mesmerizing images by french artist Noémie Goudal out of my head.

Surreal, barren landscapes where abandoned architecture meets nature in a dreamy, theatrical setting...

(Inspired by Jantar Mantar, built in Jaipur, India, in the 18th Century)

Accidentely on purpose / comme par hasard by Kate McBride

Not long ago one of our friends had an exhibition at La Chambre Claire in Paris, her name is Kate McBride and she is based in Florence. She has since the early 1980's taken polaroids and written short poetic narratives as a travel journal. The polaroid being an instant medium, it catches exactly that moment and feeling of the place and the landscape.

It became a collection book with over 200 polaroids and eighty-four poems, called 'I journey with you here'. I just love polaroids, and I love the milky dreaminess of this journal, it makes you want to travel, travel, travel...

Memory/Ruins

I have been flickering through photos of abandoned buildings/homes for a while, photographers like Bryan Schutmaat or Marchand and Meffre's photos of Detroit. There is something fascinating about ghost towns, about looking into peoples homes, and something even more fascinating looking at ruins, something touched, and then untouched.
What remains? What takes over the space?
It lives on, lives its own life, when everyone else has forgotten about it.

I think that just the presence of the abandoned creates very special state of mind. An atmosphere of void or chaos or just stillness.

A place always has memory. Sometimes its easy to read (or not) but the case of finding the poetry is also the case of finding the memory. To be able to read it (the memory, mystery and actions at a place) and to reread it or reinforce it, to create a new memory.

Memory can also be about associations, how we relate to our world. So different people would have diferent associations. Although architects often talk about "the soul" of a place, which then would be somehow at least semi-separated from our own associations.

Places definitely have an identity of its own, in my opinion (or lack of identity) independent of peoples associations. The sublime has memory.

From 'Grays the Mountain Sends' by Bryan Schutmaat

Ghost town Keelung, Taiwan by unknown photographer