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Un peu de rouge, pourtant.

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hi all,
Impressed by an Haïku, we decided Romain and I to "use" one as the base of a new work destinated to be exhibited…
As always it is a photo (I) and video (Romain) work.
We have started a few days ago to tease about it, but OPF will have the primeur of more info than other Facebook, Linkedin and the like… :)

So!
1st the Haïku (for those who don't know what an Haïku is, and are curious about it, please Google it… ;)
The author:
Takahama Kyoshi, 1874-1959

In Japanese:


白牡














In French:

Pivoines blanches,
Dit-on
Un peu de rouge, pourtant


In English:

White peonies,
They say
A little red, though
Now some introduction text in French, @Asher feel free to translate, should you wish so!

Obligatoirement court et concis un haïku incite à la réflexion, à l’imagination, au transport de l’esprit…
Un haïku évoque, suggère, invite à la contemplation et à la méditation. Par sa sobriété il éveille notre imagination en la démultipliant tel un guide à la fois savant, secret et délicat…
La sensibilité, l’imagination et les émotions sont humaines et universelles. Les cultures différentes, au travers de leurs prismes, les font s’exprimer distinctement, mais le fond reste le même !
Il appartient au lecteur de créer son propre univers… D’inventer, d’envisager, de se projeter au delà des simples mots. En hommes d’image(s) nous optons pour des métaphores visuelles qui ne sont surtout pas des tentatives de traductions mais plutôt des transgressions, des inspirations, des respirations qu’à notre tour nous offrons aux regards comme autant de phonèmes surprenants.

Fascinés par cet haïku écrit en 1925, nous avons voulu montrer comment notre imagination et notre sensibilité d’occidentaux du 21e siècle peuvent être séduites et inspirées par celles d’une poésie japonaise datant de près d’un siècle…
Nous voici, entre blanc et rouge, à rechercher lequel met l’autre en valeur, lequel serait indispensable, comme s’il devait y avoir une hiérarchie…
Et si blanc et rouge étaient incontournables ? inséparables ? Solidairement liés, de la fleur au visage, du pistil au regard, comme un seul élément fascinant et sublime à nos yeux.
Douceurs soyeuses, lueurs joyeuses et fulgurantes, légèreté aérienne, dépendances poétiques du blanc et du rouge, diérèses ou synérèses visuelles, comme des illuminations : une approche totalement libre à l’instar de celle de Takahama Kyoshi.
Des propositions romantiques et lyriques, des images voulues comme envoutantes et sensibles… Une recherche autour du rouge si discret mais puissant, révélant à sa manière la douceur enveloppante et veloutée d’un blanc qui se voudrait tellement intemporel et immaculé.
A moins que…


Nicolas Claris - Romain Claris
Mai 2019

Un grand merci à la très belle Salomé Costagliola



The teaser


And now, the first publicized photo !

1505
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The work is so beautiful, Nicolas. Just the still photography alone would be a fabulous visual representation of how a simple last century Japanese verse, affected you for the past two years, directing you to create!

But secondly, Romain’s sensitive and delicate video, transforms the visual to a sublime level of patient but succinct expression of the soul of the Haiku!

Looking forward to news of reactions in Europe!

Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Thank you Asher,
Maybe you could translate my French intro for the lazy English only readers?
I'm pretty sure that you're own sensitivity and creativity would add a lot!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thanks for the generous and trusting invitation. I have hesitated since French seems to me to have has natural musical sounds so seductive to the ear, while English is stone that had to be carved, and then has brilliance, but perhaps demands far greater sparsity for its elegance and beauty to have equivalent seduction as the best poetics in French.

So I have translated, keeping 85% of the ideas explicit in French, adjusting order and adding what I think is needed for good flow. It will be worked on and polished, but I think I have made a good start!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
When “Romeo and Juliette” was written, it was based on hundreds of years of telling and retelling of a love story. It passed through many languages. Thus the traveling evolving “prototype” of forbidden romance, was over-complex and packed with qualifying phrases adverbs and adjectives that created a bumpy literary ride!

Not until Shakespeare used sparse crafted English verse: words, (each trimmed and polished like jewels), did we go from:

I will Paraphrase from an earlier playwright:

“There was grief and sadness over the entire countryside following the tragic death of Romeo and Juliet”

Shakespeare wrote more succinctly the famous last words of the play:

“For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo!”

Such is the level of simple, evocative and refined language I have strived for you!

I could, of course, continue working, as the French of your prose is so delightful to my spirit and deserves craft and care. After all, we must carry through a translation, not merely the “words” but the “sentiments” I feel the two of you lovingly crafted.

But you can’t wait another year, while I think and rethink, as if I am writing a seminal work in “semantics” or “philosophical logic” at Oxford or the Sorbonne! Besides, for sure I would damage what is now quite beautiful English verse and worthy of your photography!




The brevity of haiku verse
Allows free space
To untie muses
And the spirits learn
To sing again

Feelings are universal
But differently expressed
As cultures change.
Yet the essences are the same!

This haiku from 1925 fascinated us and we wanted to see how
Last century’s Japanese verse
Could seduce hardened Westerners
Into the labyrinths of spirituality

And if white and red were
Lovers, inseparable
From the flower to the face
From the pistil to the gaze
In infinite embrace
Sublime to our eyes
In the Cathedral of our minds
The Haiku awakens prayers.
Soft white petals get pierced by red.
We’re vanquished by the innocence of kisses and the purity of blood!

What could breathe fragrance as Haiku,
Ancient blossomed words
Of Takahama Kyoshi?
Our images, contrived
Outrageous and simple,
Upstart, yet flowing free!
We humbly present from us to thee!

Yet in Haiku and in our Art
There’s far more to see!
So join our charade, it’s free
Of scant red and endless white
And play your part,
Muse, escape and simply “be”!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
1529

This pictures is so Japanese. There is nothing that would have made me even imagine that this was thought up and executed by a fellow from Bordeaux known for Luxury yachts, venerable vineyards and modern architecture and celebrating full bloodied red and mysteries of blacks!

So this is a major new path for you Nicolas and leverages all the esthetics you have piled up in your journeys around the globe.

I heartily recommend this new series for everyone, especially those of us who need an injection of inspiration from angels and magic!


Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Oh my!
Thank you so much, both for your poetry posted here earlier and for the comment on this image…
Mind you I had it in mind for almost 2 years before shooting it and the rest of the series…
I have to say that Salomé (the model) a young (18 years old!) Italo-French student have been marvellous and a real pleasure to work with, she added a lot!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Oh my!
Thank you so much, both for your poetry posted here earlier and for the comment on this image…
Mind you I had it in mind for almost 2 years before shooting it and the rest of the series…
I have to say that Salomé (the model) a young (18 years old!) Italo-French student have been marvellous and a real pleasure to work with, she added a lot!

Nicolas,

Yes she is beautiful, but especially such an innocent cannot make an old carthorse into a grand prize racer! Your success is inexplicable merely on the basis of proven talent in photography. There’s more such past success leveraged here!

Consider, please:

What’s the major challenge that you have succeeded in overcoming?.... with no previous experience of Japanese or Haiku:

“Transforming the essence of a line of Haiku to a visual poem of equal elegance, modesty and strength.”

Where is your preparation? Did you slip away to sit at a master’s feet in Kyoto?

It’s not as if you hear Haiku on the radio! It has no relationship to French curriculum!

So, I figure you could be an imprisoned long-dead artist, (in a vineyard cellar, who had a lifetime of wine and solitude to plan one work of art), alive again, reincarnated!

Now, return to your cell and drink up for the next project that flutters through your cell window, like a leaf, blown in the wind from nowhere!

Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Nicolas,

Yes she is beautiful, but especially such an innocent cannot make an old carthorse into a grand prize racer! Your success is inexplicable merely on the basis of proven talent in photography. There’s more such past success leveraged here!

Consider, please:

What’s the major challenge that you have succeeded in overcoming?.... with no previous experience of Japanese or Haiku:
Having 30 seconds (I had never met her before!), 37 years ago, to convince Marine that she was (and still is!) la "femme de ma vie"

“Transforming the essence of a line of Haiku to a visual poem of equal elegance, modesty and strength.”
Ingest, digest, imagine, get as deep as possible into your mind. In the silence of the night(s)

Where is your preparation? Did you slip away to sit at a master’s feet in Kyoto?
Read above ;)

It’s not as if you hear Haiku on the radio! It has no relationship to French curriculum!
IMHO Emotions created by art are universal, we feel them thru our own cultural prism. That's the interesting start for a work inspired by someone else art…

So, I figure you could be an imprisoned long-dead artist, (in a vineyard cellar, who had a lifetime of wine and solitude to plan one work of art), alive again, reincarnated!
Not imprisoned… but hidden until my own fear to show did disappear…

Now, return to your cell and drink up for the next project that flutters through your cell window, like a leaf, blown in the wind from nowhere!
Well, before that I have to find patrons to pay for the expenses of the exhibition and the right place(s) for the exhibition also!
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
EXPOSITION !
Où ?
Dans l'"espace culturel" du Seeko'o****, le plus contemporain des hôtels de Bordeaux 🙂
Quand ?
Du 15 octobre 2019 au 6 janvier 2020
Entrée libre de 14h à 18h30
Plus d'infos sur le site www.unpeuderouge.art
Modèle : Salomé Costagliola

Nous ne désirons pas dévoiler toute l'exposition au public avant qu'elle n'est lieu, pour ceux qui désirent voir l'intégralité des images et le film entier, merci de demander le lien en PM… :)

_NCZ1622_unpeuderouge.jpg

Pivoines blanches dit-on…

_NCZ1821_unpeuderouge.jpg

… un peu de rouge, pourtant.​
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It’s exciting and a special privilege to be alongside side you both, Nicolas and Romain, building on ideas, expressing a consistent motif until it flowers and bears fruit to toy new exhibition in Bordeaux!


2194


We all wish you both continued unbridled success!

Thanks to Marine your steady muse and advisor and all those forward seeing people who have gathered around your Haiku to express its lyricism in beautiful Français!

Inspiring achievement!

Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Merci Asher !
Mais cela n'a pas l'air d'intéresser beaucoup de membres du forum !
Nobody else but you…
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Nicolas,

I am always going to notice your work as I am privileged to know you are not just a working photographer but a family devoted to art.

Yes, there should be more posts but folk can often sit here, online, checking in 5 times a day, waiting for replies but not commenting on anything else, as “We’re busy!

I persevere, as this is the home we built together and I get a lot out of the diverse characters, skills and artwork we do share!

Asher
 

Charlotte Thompson

Well-known member
Hey Hey you 2 guys...
I have seen this on FB and did not know it was here as well... Romain and Nicolas know how I feel about this stunning work! So beautifully benign .. so helplessly innocent ... so strikingly pure ..so perfect in its pursuit... without end

Charlotte
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Nicolas,

I am always going to notice your work as I am privileged to know you are not just a working photographer but a family devoted to art.

Yes, there should be more posts but folk can often sit here, online, checking in 5 times a day, waiting for replies but not commenting on anything else, as “We’re busy!

I persevere, as this is the home we built together and I get a lot out of the diverse characters, skills and artwork we do share!

Asher
Merci mon ami !
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hey Hey you 2 guys...
I have seen this on FB and did not know it was here as well... Romain and Nicolas know how I feel about this stunning work! So beautifully benign .. so helplessly innocent ... so strikingly pure ..so perfect in its pursuit... without end

Charlotte
Chère Charlotte, vous me faite rougir comme un teenager!
OPF a été, il y a bien longtemps maintenant, mon premier réseau social et m'a permis de me faire de réels amis, J'en ai même rencontré certains, aux USA, en Allemagne, en Suisse, en Hollande et même en France !
Mais je doit reconnaître que Fb est nettement plus efficace pour faire connaître mes travaux et ceux de Romain…
Je ne poste plus ici que par fidélité, pas assez souvent je l'admet, mais il n'y a pas assez de jours dans les semaines…

Chère Charlotte, vous êtes une personnalité étonnante (un vrai compliment de ma part… ;) j'espère que nous aurons un jour l'occasion de nous rencontrer, in real!
 

Charlotte Thompson

Well-known member
Nicolas.... Vous et Romain les deux touchent toujours mon coeur avec votre art, Vous deux êtes quels américains appellent les Bons Gars et facile de le voir dans votre travail bien que me dérangent toujours s'accrochant de l'hélicoptère! Je veux toujours que vous tous les deux soyez bien et le coffre-fort. Peut-être un jour ou dans un autre temps de vie je devrais rencontrer mes artistes d'hélicoptère.
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Des idées, du bon matériel (merci Pentax !), de la créativité, de l'envie, des "choses" à montrer, de l'emphatie, un beau lieu adapté, tout cela est nécessaire pour préparer une exposition mais sans un laboratoire compétent, tout le travail peut être ruiné…
Nous avons la très grande chance à Bordeaux que David Helman et Maud Batellier aient créé il y a peu un nouveau labo pour réalisser les tirages.
Leurs conseils sur les papiers à utiliser en fonction de type de photographie, leur savoir-faire, leur gentillesse sont inégalables !

Hier je suis aller voir les 17 tirages (140 x 105 cm ! - 55.1 x 41.3 i,ches) avant le contrecollage sur feuille d'alu…

Maginfique ! quel rendu ! quel respect des couleurs ! quel piqué ! A ces formats là, je ne regrette pas le moyen format 645Z de Pentax.

Mind blowing, I would say…


2213


2214


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2216


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Pivoines blanches,
Dit-on
Un peu de rouge, pourtant

















Takahama Kyoshi, 1874-1959
 
Last edited:

Charlotte Thompson

Well-known member
comment impressionnant est cela! Où est ce départ ce qui doit être fait .. il sera beau de le voir dans une charpente. J'utilise un magasin de caractères de mon travail et moi dont croient que je pourrais devenir un cela grand et si je le pourrais être un énorme prix... Pouvez vous me dire comment cette photo est venue pour être et comment a fait vous recevez tant de belle lumière blanche sur son visage.
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Dear Charlotte,
Thank you for taking the time to write in French!
So, to thank you, I'll reply my best in English :)
I don't have a studio for shooting, so I did shoot the series outdoor with 2 led panels.
I had a white background and lit it as much as I could.
The most difficult was to isolate the white peony from the white background!
Of course I did a lot in post, but the intent was there from the early beginning.
The white make-up of her face was of great help too!
The shooting of the whole series was not really long, about 3 hours including Romain's video shooting.
But we have thought of the what and why and how for many months before…
We just were ready :)
Salomé our model had never been modelling before and this helped to have her very natural poses.
Beside of the shooting, the most difficult has been to find the right peonies, purely white with red pistil, I wrote to tenth of florists and nursery owners. I had to order them and we got them 2 weeks before the end of the white peony season!
No way to reshoot before a year…
 
Last edited:

Charlotte Thompson

Well-known member
Nicolas
You guys are soooo amazing. Your talents shine through each other! like 2 crystals in the sun light. You can see the dedication in your work. I stand beside you both! Thank you for taking your time to explain for me. Hugs.
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Nicolas
You guys are soooo amazing. Your talents shine through each other! like 2 crystals in the sun light. You can see the dedication in your work. I stand beside you both! Thank you for taking your time to explain for me. Hugs.
Dear Charlotte,
Il arrive qu'une image vaille mieux que cent mots…

2230


A lot of red, though!
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Such an exhibition is a huge investment both financially (many many grants) and human ressources preparing the 17 large prints of course, but the cartels, panel to explain the exhibition to visitors, marketing on social networks, creating invitations for the opening (both on hard paper and emails) collecting postal addresses and emails etc.
For the first time we also have a large poster outside on the wall of the hotel.

Now we'll have to sell!
Hanging is next Monday and opening to the public is Tuesday…

2258

The **** hotel is situated on the quays of Bordeaux in between old classical facades

2259


The building is quite large but the visual impact of the poster should attract visitors

2260

 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The architectural design of the hotel adds that perfect surface for your giant poster. That you took away the trees and obtained consent to rebrand the hotel with your amazing script is itself a marketing achievement.

2263


Did you post it directly on the surface or is it mounted? How is it waterproofed?

The result is amazing as it distinguishes the hotel itself!

I have just returned from a major meeting of public artists, designers and fabricators in El Paso, and this treatment would stand shoulder to shoulder with the brightest and best.

But in addition this is distinguished by panache and bespoke class which mostly is a forgotten attitude.

You should be designing exteriors too!

Kudos. This itself is first class!

Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Did you post it directly on the surface or is it mounted? How is it waterproofed?
Asher
Thank you Asher for the kind words :)

The poster has been printed on a self adhesive canvas with anti UV and waterproof inks
The exterior walls of the hotel are completely covered with Corian® material.
 
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