Last week, while looking over photographic work of some rather famous photographers as I often do, I found an exhibit that was going to be showing the work of Michael Kenna. Unfortunately, I missed the exhibit. As I wandered through his work on-line, I found a scene that looked quite familiar. I had been to the same location: Versailles. As I looked at the photo, it struck me that I remembered taking a photo of the same fountain. I went back to my files, and sure enough, there was the Chariot of Apollo and it looked remarkable close to the famous photo that Mr. Kenna had taken.
Date: 13 May 2009 Camera: Nikon D300 Lens: Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 DX ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/320 sec. at f/5.6 Focal length: 48 mm Processed using Lightroom 5, PhotoshopCC, and Silver Efex Pro 2; Cropped to Aspect ratio 16:9
When I took the photo, I had no idea who Michael Kenna was, let alone that I had unknowingly stood in almost the same spot. I’m sure many, many people have visited Versailles and taken photographs of this same fountain. What is interesting are the changes that have occurred at this location. While I found that this photograph was taken from almost the same spot as the famous Kenna photograph, change over the years renders a difference. I examined both photographs and found that the bent tree arcing toward the small statue in the Kenna phtograph was now gone and the hedge, that in the Kenna photograph was small, is now very large. The hedge, now more prominent, obscures the fence. Kenna’s photograph was taken in 1988 (Chariot of Apollo, Study 1, Versailles, France, 1988); the water smoother, the light more filtered and misty, the photograph more ethereal. Kenna works almost entirely with monochrome film and medium format cameras for his fine art photographs.
Kenna has produced four published studies of the Chariot of Apollo, each having a different personality (1988, 2 in 1996 and 2009). Ironically, I was also at Versailles in 2009. In the 2009 study, Kenna’s photo looks back toward the Palace; I found that I had taken one from the opposite side looking down the Grand Canal. Again, the color photo is nice, but I believe it is more striking as a monochrome. The photograph I took is digital, taken in May 2009, has been buried in my archives since and not struck me until I saw the same scene in monochrome: the impact of the photograph is better in monochrome than color. Thank you Michael Kenna for providing an unknowing lesson.
Date: 13 May 2009 Camera: Nikon D300 Lens: Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 DX ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/640 sec. at f/8 Focal length: 55 mm Processed using Lightroom 5, PhotoshopCC, and Silver Efex Pro 2; Cropped to Aspect ratio 16:9
Thumbnails of the original photos:
Le Bassin d’Apollo (En: The Fountain of Apollo) is a fountain at the Palace of Versailles, France. Charles Le Brun designed the centerpiece depicting the Greek god Apollo rising from the sea in a four-horse chariot. A pond was dug on the site of the fountain in 1639 called “The Pond of the Swans”. When King Louis XIV had it enlarged in 1671, the pond’s east-west orientation and the common association of the King with Apollo prompted Le Brun to suggest dedicating the site to Apollo. The dawn theme was popular at the time and appears on some painted ceilings in European palaces. The fountain was constructed between 1668 and 1671. (Ref: Wikipedia)
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