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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue439" data-source="post: 824632" data-attributes="member: 53455">Yes, you’re in for yet another story...  <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite27" alt=":giggle:" title="Giggle    :giggle:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":giggle:" />In the late 1950s, a young Benedictine monk in the Burgundy abbey of La-Pierre-qui-Vire (literally, “The Turning Stone”) convinced his abbot to launch a collection of books devoted to Romanesque architecture and art, the beholding of which the young monk thought auspicious to religious meditation. The books would be printed and bound by the monks themselves within the abbey, the illustrating photographs would be numerous, of the highest quality and mostly in black-and-white, printed using a top-notch process involving intaglio plates and called héliogravure —photogravure it is named in English, according to the Merriam–Webster dictionary. The so-called in-house publishing house would be named Zodiaque.This was a most incongruous venture as the monks knew nothing about any of the trades required and owned none of the necessary equipment. Somehow, and of course the monks would tend to see there the helping hand of God (and then again, who knows?), they managed to make it a resounding success, generating substantial profits for the abbey, which launched an ambitious building program on the grounds with the proceeds.The adventure lasted for about 50 years, our young monk growing older and learning photography and visiting all the provinces of France and many other European countries and even all the way to the Holy Land... The books are now all out of print. Most have achieved textbook status with the most reputed universities in the world and fetch utterly ridiculous prices on the secondhand market (see a reasonable example <a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/324769716534?_skw=Zodiaque+books&itmmeta=01J98RE7SVKHYDR69XFANX0DDC&hash=item4b9dc89936:g:6n0AAOSwNEphKTui&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKmb%2BBOQLrhnMos%2B1bnzCwYyEF%2FN0j6gN%2FaGSxtodcgRuyoW3KNSd5ZBH3xiUI%2FjAxLbiuWYNkNOxzIspE854b%2FXNNs%2BURofJrMqgdcR8OWw1gVyaIDm0Tcf444iv90VeGMil4GpDFqVmMAA%2BoWtOmYf8bAVceJURSHh5zqq9LuC285W6J2SKlfb5DuO5H7MtJV%2Baeezg3JtAiQwnQfp7yVBJyI%2B3gAajuUx%2FsRwls5dSbXC9YzDmTOOkSUWdnUrSN1i7JV6Y1VJawCSRfjq0RuqeT5kSRv8VIJY2iGWJ0ZQpg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4b9uJjKZA" target="_blank">here</a> on eBay).In 2021, I had to pleasure to write an essay for Kenyon College in Ohio about the photography in the Zodiaque books, and how to emulate it with the tools of nowadays. It was published in their Peregrinations online journal and can be read (and, I think, downloaded) <a href="https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal/vol7/iss4/10/" target="_blank">here</a>.The young monk was named José Surchamp, and in religion he chose to be known as Dom Angelico, in homage, of course, to Fra Angelico, the Italian painter monk of the late Middle Ages († 1455), as young José was also a painter (together with a couple of his brothers, he created a number of alfresco paintings in religious institutions throughout France), a connoisseur of modern art and a keen practitioner of the piano. He died in 2018 at age 93 and I wanted to pay homage to him, as he was my mentor in the field of Romanesque architecture and art photography.I have already shown him in action on this forum, climbing atop the great ladder of the firemen in his billowing robes to examine the tympanum of a cathedral up close, but here are three more snaps of him. He was such a great, humble, unimaginably cultured and kind person.Cleaning up Romanesque capitals with a dustbuster in a Spanish cloister in the 1960s:[ATTACH=full]410768[/ATTACH]In action, operating his Hasselblad. His assistant, Brother Norbert, is holding the umbrella. Also in Spain in the 1960s, in front of the abbey’s Fiat panel van they used to travel and transport the gear:[ATTACH=full]410769[/ATTACH]In the late 1950s, with pro French photographer Jean Dieuzaide:[ATTACH=full]410770[/ATTACH]So, where am I going exactly with this story? To this: Angelico favored black-and-white over color photography for architecture and sculpture because our churches are now all the color of the stones they’re built with; all the paint that ever was, if any, has disappeared, and he thought color in photographs would detract from the contemplation of the subject matter of the photo. Lines, shapes and rhythm, those concepts that are ever-present in Romanesque and which, as I said above, he thought favored introspection and meditation, would be best used if the mind would be free of other distractions. A bit like the Cistercians who would stop the supporting pillars in their naves above eye-level so that they would not interrupt the plain vertical expanse of the wall... although Angelico was not Cistercian at all in his approach to life and religion!So, following in his footsteps, I too do find that black-and-white photography lends a particular atmosphere to photographs which is probably more conducive to reflection... This Pagan–inspired leafy capital, in the priory church of Nevers (central France), will be my photo for the day. I hope people will think it could have been excerpted from a Zodiaque book...! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite30" alt=":geek:" title="Geek    :geek:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":geek:" />Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 85mm, ƒ/2.8 PC-E tilt-shift lens, manual focus, FTZ II adapter. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head. Natural light.[ATTACH=full]410771[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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