Traductions
Choisir A, B ou C

A. "I realized that geometry is the basis of all feeling or rather that each expression of a feeling is realized by a movement governed by geometry. Indeed, geometry is present everywhere in nature. A woman combing her hair executes rythmical movements with a beautiful harmony. All rythm of the body is governed by laws... Nature is the supreme architect. Everything in it is built in the most perfect equilibrium and everything fits into a triangle or a cube or in one of their variants. I've adopted the principle in constructing my statues, simplifying and reducing details in order to achieve a greater unity overall..."

"When I work on a bust or a face, I begin by shaping the profiles. That gives me depth and firmness, the volume encompassed by a space. I observe a deviation in the oval of the head. Sometimes, the forehead juts out from the rest of the face or the jaws seem too prominent and the forehead sloping back. Once I have established the line of deviation, I bring together all the profiles and thus come up a living form.

B. Black and white is a transposition of reality. All values are present in black and white, and leave open the possibility of making choices.  Color photography brings into play many problems difficult to solve because of their complexity. Personally, I am afraid that so complicated an element works to the detriment of the feeling of life and the simple movement sometimes captured in black and white.

To be truly creative in the realm of color photography, one must transpose, transform, modulate color, and thus find the freedom to express oneself within the framework of the broad laws laid down by the Impressionists (law of simultaneous contrast, all color tends to color its adjoining space with its own complementary; if two shades hold a color in common, the latter loses intensity by the juxtaposition of them both, two complementary colors juxtaposed enhance each other, and mixed together cancel out each other)--laws extending even to the photographer.

C.    In 1562, France ignites and killing goes on just about everywhere. Historians discern some eight wars of religion. To be more exact, the turmoil, from murder of individuals to pitched battles between partisan troops or against the royal army, went on for thirty years. Names taught to school children personify the horror of this period: Monluc, the Catholic captain; des Adrets, the Protestant captain. People kill--with fanaticism--with savagery. Massacres of Protestants, massacres of priests, fortresses laid low, cemeteries desecrated, cities sacked, arson, drownings, hangings, sacrilegious mascarades, bloody riots, art treasures thrown in the gutters, dirtied, demolished, melted down: citing one by one these monotonous abominations is tiresome. There were lulls during which life picked up again. With money flowing back in, new contruction got under way. The queen-mother organised celebrations, reconciliations, marriages. She thought it necessary to dazzle the small folk and amuse the nobles. Tapestries preserved in Florence sumptuously recount the wanderings the Court across France from 1564 to 1566, after the first war.