Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Jardin secret


In my von Gloeden's photographs collection, I think this one is among the rarest, the most precious... I have never seen it in any modern Gloeden's books...

I love the purity of its structure... A wall, a tree, a jar, light and shade, and a teen boy...

I love the infinite grace of this young male body, its visible beauty as well as the way a part of it is hidden under a clothe... I love the curves, the inflections, the smoothness, the curly and tousled hairs... I love the profile of his face, the way his body is at the same time so relaxed and tensed, to keep the posture...

I love the set up of this photograph... It is in Taormina, in the late 90's of the XIXth century... It could be a scene from Greek antiquity, and this boy could be the listener of a Socrates' lesson of philosophy...

I love what is intemporal in this photograph... What it displays could speak and sing for viewers in Antiquity, in Renaissance, in XIXth century and today as well...

I love the way desire, longing, appeal, sensitiveness are staged within a border when one can look at, admire, dream about, but not touch...

I don't know the name of this ragazzo of Taormina, in the late XIXth century... But thanks to von Gloeden's photograph, he became immortal... and he is young for ever, even if he is now just dust in the soil of Taormina's cemetery...

If you repost this photograph of my collection, please link to my blog...

Butterfly


2 comments:

Dany said...

Creo que esa es la mayor gloria de la fotografía de hombres desnudos: inmortalizar esa belleza, volverla intemporal.

En el caso puntual de esta foto que con tanta solidaridad compartes con nosotros, tú también estás contribuyendo a mantener vivo a ese efebo en toda su radiante belleza.

Como decía Quevedo: "serán cenizas, pero tendrán sentido; polvo serán, mas polvo enamorado".

Gracias por este maravilloso y entusiasmante post!!!

Tiago said...

Thank you, mister Butterfly, for sharing this precious treasure.