I referred to museums as "local culture morgues" in my previous post, a term that struck a chord in more than one viewer.
They are beautiful places, full of imagination, awe, mystery and curiosity - all the nice things you can ascribe to someone. They relate stories of horror, courage, endurance, pity - the whole gamut of human experience.
The most moving museum I know is the International Red Cross museum where the index cards of four million + soldiers who died in the First World War are displayed - row upon row upon row of people's lives.
The most tedious one I know is the French National Antiquities Museum in the château of Saint-German-en-Laye: display cases of rocks gathering dust under bad lighting.
In between are all the marvels and joys of discovering who we are - although no one seems to relate museums with a personal discovery, a journey backwards and forwards into ourselves, our culture, our sense of position.
Again, I say that museums are all about the future, not the past. And again, I grieve to witness hundreds of people take in a hot exhibition - never mind the permanent collection - rather like a musical.
I always hang around the exit of a museum to look at visitors' expressions. As I said in the last post, it can happen that someone leaves with an awestruck, illuminated, thoughtful face, but it happens all too rarely.
I hope you find the time soon to go to your local museum. But if you're curious, read about the opposite of what I'm considering: Stendahl syndrome [en.wikipedia.org].
Technical notes (before I become any more sanctimonious):
I went to my local museum early this morning without realising the sun was exactly in the wrong place for a measured, calm study of what is in fact a fairly ugly building.
In a fit of pique, I blew out the highlights, upped the contrast and turned it into a very high-key mono - and liked the results so much I did the same to all the others.
As you've noticed, they're all in mono except for the interior of a charming little museum made all the lovelier for those warm, embracing blues and the fact that the museum itself is located in the ugliest town I know: Elefsina, home of the ancient Eleusinian mysteries. Unfortunately, the only mystery remaining today is how anyone can still live there.
Hope you enjoy the contrasts.
National Archaeological Museum, Athens, today
Emmnuel Benaki museum contemporary annex, Athens
The Uffizi, Florence.
Elefsina archaeological museum
The Uffizi again. Sorry. This post [photoblog.com] features the undoctored version
Stoa of Attalos, Athens
Guess where? The Uffizi!
If anyone's wondering why only Athens and Florence get a mention, it's because I haven't been anywhere else recently and taken photographs of its museums. Remember, many museums have a strict ‘no photography’ rule both inside and outside.
There's nothing better than visiting musuems to learn about where you've come from, to know what you may have done had you been born hundreds, perhaps thousands of years earlier than you have been. I like what you've done with the photos - especially the third shot.
We're quite lucky in Melbourne that we have one particularly good musuem - remembering that as far as colonised people come, the history of those people is only 200 years old. The culture and people of this country, not of the colony, is well over 40,000 years old.
What I think strikes me the most, is that human behaviour, at the most base level, has really not changed that much. The contexts, the technology, all has. Take that all away, and what are we?
Great post, Stefan.