16 August 2007
Contrast
Yesterday, I had the 4 film rolls I made in Japan processed and digitized on cd-rom. It's always a bit disappointing to check out the result of digitized film photography. it's clearly not meant to be scanned, or maybe it shouldn't be done in an automatic process, but then here we talk about a different kind of costs.
Before I take the time to put a larger selection online, I picked a sample of pictures to illustrate the different moments of my journey.
Kamakura beach
Fushimiinari temple, Kyoto
Tomoko and I in Pontocho, Kyoto - photo taken by Julie
Namba district, Osaka
Santora youth hostel beach, Manabe - Jima
Hida Folk Village
Interior of a house, Sogen-ji temple, Takayama
Hirayu Onsen
--Joëlle
Before I take the time to put a larger selection online, I picked a sample of pictures to illustrate the different moments of my journey.
Kamakura beach
Fushimiinari temple, Kyoto
Tomoko and I in Pontocho, Kyoto - photo taken by Julie
Namba district, Osaka
Santora youth hostel beach, Manabe - Jima
Hida Folk Village
Interior of a house, Sogen-ji temple, Takayama
Hirayu Onsen
--Joëlle
Labels: Japan, Photography, Traveling
15 August 2007
In a sentimental mood
Maybe it's because I just finished "The Fortress of solitude" by Jonathan Lethem, maybe it's because my journey is coming to an end soon as I'm back to Tokyo, a couple of days before taking the plane to Paris, maybe it's because of all the intense emotions I've experienced in the past 3 weeks, maybe it's because it's in the nature of the travel - a mixture of cinematographic images, clichés of nostalgic dreams and physical exiled exhaustions - but I can't help my melancholy.
Whether my mind is set in 70s Brooklyn, NY where a friendship between a white kid and a black kid seems to have to be doomed, or in nowadays Tokyo, Japan, where I'm floating in a transitional reality, I get a glimpse of the beauty of love, and of kindness, made out of past and present bonds.
--Joelle.
Whether my mind is set in 70s Brooklyn, NY where a friendship between a white kid and a black kid seems to have to be doomed, or in nowadays Tokyo, Japan, where I'm floating in a transitional reality, I get a glimpse of the beauty of love, and of kindness, made out of past and present bonds.
--Joelle.
Labels: Literature, Melancholy, Traveling
30 May 2007
My true nature
When I was a kid, like many other kids of my generation, I watched Japanese anime on TV. Names like Candy, Goldorak and Albator are common references in France. And one of the reasons is that many of those anime were co-produced between France and Japan. We were not really the Sesame Street culture.
There was one particular anime that stood out among dozens of them. I was 8 or 9 and hooked to the end (actually I never got to watch the very last episode). It bore the most exciting title: "Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or" (The Mysterious Cities of Gold) and with a mix of history, poetry and science-fiction, it tells the most exciting story - In 1532, Esteban, an orphan believed to have the power to call the Sun (he would be the "son of the sun"), leaves Spain at 12 to follow an intriguing sailor and adventurer, Mendoza, to the New World to look for his father. On the road, he befriends two kids his age: first, Zia, an Inca and then Tao, the last descendant of the Mu empire. In Peru, they travel on the path of the cities of gold while trying to escape the pursuit of the Conquistadors who believe they are the keys to immense treasures.
I'm pretty much convinced that this anime triggered most of my life callings: traveling, history and politics.
Maybe I'm being simplistic but I can't remember before that time this intense need I had pretty early to expand my horizons widely, and this awareness of the links, bridges and breaks between civilizations and of the wastes and damages a conquering people could provoke upon a defeated one.
Admire the construction of the opening credits, a sort of Powers-of-Ten that builds up the excitation to a dramatic resolution carried by the song.
The first seconds and the narrator's voice still have quite the same commanding effects on me.
--Joëlle
There was one particular anime that stood out among dozens of them. I was 8 or 9 and hooked to the end (actually I never got to watch the very last episode). It bore the most exciting title: "Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or" (The Mysterious Cities of Gold) and with a mix of history, poetry and science-fiction, it tells the most exciting story - In 1532, Esteban, an orphan believed to have the power to call the Sun (he would be the "son of the sun"), leaves Spain at 12 to follow an intriguing sailor and adventurer, Mendoza, to the New World to look for his father. On the road, he befriends two kids his age: first, Zia, an Inca and then Tao, the last descendant of the Mu empire. In Peru, they travel on the path of the cities of gold while trying to escape the pursuit of the Conquistadors who believe they are the keys to immense treasures.
I'm pretty much convinced that this anime triggered most of my life callings: traveling, history and politics.
Maybe I'm being simplistic but I can't remember before that time this intense need I had pretty early to expand my horizons widely, and this awareness of the links, bridges and breaks between civilizations and of the wastes and damages a conquering people could provoke upon a defeated one.
Admire the construction of the opening credits, a sort of Powers-of-Ten that builds up the excitation to a dramatic resolution carried by the song.
The first seconds and the narrator's voice still have quite the same commanding effects on me.
--Joëlle
Labels: Anime, History, Politics, Traveling
10 May 2007
Some photos and then some more
Last fall and last winter, I traveled to Japan and to Israel, along with small trips here and there.
It took me some time to develop the pictures, select them, put them online. Now it's done.
I hope you'll enjoy the 3 different sets, without music this time. I invite you to set your own mood and let me know what fit well according to you.
The first set, In the garden of light and dark, follows some of my paths into the Japanese gardens I went to film for my Abstract project.
The second set, Faces and shadows, introduces you to some of the incredible people I met in Japan, along with faces of strangers I just glanced at.
The third set, Color me good, starts in the Sinaï where I went to spend holidays with Bertrand and Martin and back in Israel where the Mitzpe Ramon crater and the Dead Sea offered strange colors to catch.
All pictures were taken with my Contax T2, except for the pictures taken in Normandy from the last set that were shot with my Lomo camera.
Finally, I chose to use my Flickr account to only host the pictures I take with my camera phone. It's not always significant but I find some of the results interesting, especially the ones with light effects.
--Joëlle
It took me some time to develop the pictures, select them, put them online. Now it's done.
I hope you'll enjoy the 3 different sets, without music this time. I invite you to set your own mood and let me know what fit well according to you.
The first set, In the garden of light and dark, follows some of my paths into the Japanese gardens I went to film for my Abstract project.
The second set, Faces and shadows, introduces you to some of the incredible people I met in Japan, along with faces of strangers I just glanced at.
The third set, Color me good, starts in the Sinaï where I went to spend holidays with Bertrand and Martin and back in Israel where the Mitzpe Ramon crater and the Dead Sea offered strange colors to catch.
All pictures were taken with my Contax T2, except for the pictures taken in Normandy from the last set that were shot with my Lomo camera.
Finally, I chose to use my Flickr account to only host the pictures I take with my camera phone. It's not always significant but I find some of the results interesting, especially the ones with light effects.
--Joëlle
Labels: Flickr, Israel, Japan, Photography, Traveling
