Sunday Times 2
30 moments with Our Lady of Paris
Not many years back, we were sitting one afternoon at a table in a street corner sidewalk café on what must have been the Quai de Montebello. We were facing Notre Dame de Paris and watching the rain come down. This was our first visit to France and our last day in the City of Lights (Love, Dreams). It was about four in the afternoon. We were exhausted, irritable and impatient to get on the plane and head home. All week it had been mercilessly hot and sunny and physically draining, and daily we were becoming less enthusiastic about the most popular city among the world’s travellers.
Our visit earlier in the day to the cathedral, the most iconic Roman Catholic structure in France, and possibly Europe, was a let-down. The interior lacked atmosphere, it seemed to us, and even an air of history – surprising, for a church that is more than 900 years old and has figured prominently in the history and literature of France. The vast space felt like a marketplace, not a place of worship. Visitors walked in and out as if milling around a shopping mall. We were not even tempted to attend Holy Mass, which was being conducted briskly by a priest in red. After making our three wishes, we stepped out into the dry, stale July heat. An hour later, the sight of rain falling in sheets over Notre Dame in the distance washed away some of the disappointment.
We have not given Notre Dame de Paris much thought in the years since that visit to Europe. Last week, however, Notre Dame came back into lively focus when we viewed Kumar de Silva’s collection of 30 black-and-white photographs of the cathedral, in his exhibition Nostalgie04. Mr. de Silva visits France regularly, and he has made Paris, his “spiritual home”, the theme of this and his previous photo exhibition. He has been holding photo exhibitions for four consecutive years.
When we dropped by at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery last Sunday, we had the privilege of attending a guided tour of the show conducted by the photographer himself. But before we viewed the photographs, he wanted us to know a few things: that he is, in his words, an “amateur”; that he considers his photographic work a collection of “raw images”, and that the camera he uses is a limited-range digital that fits in the palm of his hand and his hip pocket. Mr. de Silva was amused when a professional photographer asked him about the equipment he carries.
It must be added that Kumar de Silva is a Francophile who not just loves France, he adores it – the country, its language, its culture. He knows Paris like the back of his hand and speaks French like a native. He is also a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an honour conferred by the French government in recognition of his efforts to promote the French language and culture in Sri Lanka over the past quarter century.
The pictures on display were taken in the summer of 2012, over two intense days of seizing the moment, calculating shots, and zooming around.
While explaining the religious iconography captured in his images, the photographer was quick to point out that he is not a believer. Born to a Church of England family, Mr. de Silva decided at the age of 15 that he could not subscribe to the idea of an omnipotent, omnipresent God, or gods. He started studying Buddhism instead, and the rest of his family followed his example. But the Christian elements and events he grew up with, such as Christmas and Easter, remain embedded in his psyche. “You cannot ever erase what you loved and enjoyed as a child,” he says.
As author of the photo collection, Mr. de Silva could tell us things the casual viewer, and even someone familiar with Paris, may not know. For example, a view from a bridge of Notre Dame had in the foreground what looked like a trellis of thick leaves casting leaf-like late afternoon shadows on the pavement; it was in fact a railing of wire mesh loaded with padlocks. The “love locks” are placed by lovers who autograph the symbolic hardware before throwing the keys into the river. Padlock bridges over the Seine are a development of the past few years.
Mr. de Silva’s images are all of the cathedral’s exterior: close-ups, containing a wealth of architectural detail, including carvings of apostles and gargoyles; middle-distance views of visitors relaxing in front of the church portals, drinking from water fountains and feeding pigeons, and distant views, taken from outside the Ile de la Cite, the island on the Seine on which the cathedral stands.
The inspiration for the black-and-white studies of Paris comes, says Mr. de Silva, from two famous French photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau, pioneers of photojournalism who recorded Paris street life in the first half of the 20th century.
Photographer de Silva described the fun he had selecting his images, waiting for the apt moment, juxtaposing close-up and distant objects as if they were within kissing distance, zooming in on features of the cathedral façade outside the visual field of the casual observer. Together, we had fun spotting things the other had missed.
The photographer asked us to spot the three “dames” dominating an image of a water fountain in front of the cathedral. We identified the obvious “dame” – the lady filling a cup at the fontaine publique: the other two dames were “Notre Dame”, of course, the Great Lady herself, and the drinking fountain of a “dame”, outlined like a three-sided Picasso-type “dame” sculpture.
Amateur though he calls himself, Mr. de Silva has a professional’s eye and an artist’s instinct for composition. His subjects are painstakingly framed and delicately balanced. Many of the photographs would reward sustained, absorbed viewing.
A year from now, Kumar de Silva will be holding his next Paris photo exhibition, which he promises will be “a riot of exuberance.”
On our way out, we picked up a couple of brochures lying on the exhibition counter. One offered a budget travel package to Paris and back. Perhaps the time is right for a return visit. If we do make the trip, it would be largely thanks to Mr. de Silva’s inviting images, his championing of cultural values, and his célébration de la vie.
Proceeds from the sale of prints of Kumar de Silva’s Notre Dame photographs will go towards helping fellow photographer and road accident victim Rukshan Abeywansha, who requires Rs. 5 million to cover crucial surgery and medical expenses. A limited edition of six prints per photograph, 18″ by 24″, will be available for sale. Today, Sunday, July 20, is the last day of the exhibition, which is on view at the Alliance Francaise de Kotte, 11 Keppetipola Mawatha, Colombo 5.