Deborah Smolen
France and the French have experienced a long and often turbulent history. I felt the enduring spirit of the place and the people, and I have tried to capture the sense of timelessness I felt there. These are what I consider to be details unique to this country, subjects, which, to me, can only be French. I have photographed icons and symbols, the ordinary and extraordinary, things that are large and small. These are cultural and historical images, spanning hundreds of years. I felt as if I have traveled through time as well as through the landscape.
As an American, I can understand any foreign country only on a superficial level. When I bring myself to a place that isn't mine, I bring my preconceived ideas and my experience with me. I am trying to share what I felt there as well as what I saw.
The qualities of light and atmosphere are very specific and unique in France. I have printed this portfolio in a way that I feel captures the warm soft light my eye perceived.
Even though I have excluded portraits from this exhibit, I feel the presence of the French people in my photographs. Their spirits infuse these scenes even if their physical forms are absent.
I have included writings by other Americans who have traveled to France, which express some of my feelings and thoughts. Several passages were like seeing through their eyes, as if they had seen what I had photographed and felt what I felt.
I want to live in that dark alley named I'Impasse des Deux Anges, and have those little pointed jeweled blue shoes at the Cluny copied, and get my perfumes from Molinard's and go to Schiaparelli's spring show....and go out to Chantilly to see if they've turned another page n the Duke's Book of Hours.
Katherine Anne Porter
I sat in a corner with the afternoon light in over my shoulder and wrote in the notebook. The waiter brought me a cafe creme and I drank half of it when it cooled and left it on the table while I wrote.
Ernest Hemingway
This is a very extensive and beautiful garden-with long, shady gravel walks over which the tall old trees, which are all regularly planted, form perfect arches and directly in the center, a valley or lower level of the ground in which are little plats of flowers, rows of orange trees and a little pond with two beautiful white swans.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were of how it was changed or with what difficulties or ease it could be reached. Paris is always worth it and you received return for what ever you brought to it.
Ernest Hemingway
Thank you for taking the time to look at my photographs. I hope you enjoy these "French Details".
Deborah Smolen, 1999
P.O. Box 4023, Carmel, Ca. 93921
Galleries: Deborah's work can be found at the Ansel Adams gallery. http://www.adamsgallery.com
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