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My aim with these pictures was to capture the juxtaposition of old and less old with nature making her way in between. There is a line from Jurassic Park that Jeff Goldblum said when they found out that the dinosaurs were procreating, that nature will always find a way, and seeing how trees and vines sprouted up between buildings willy nilly made me think of that line immediately.
I also wanted to show how monuments built in the eighth century would abutt buildings built in the sixteenth century and be surrounded by modern signs and automobiles. In the States we don’t really have the occasion of seeing such dramatic differences in architecture and time lines and I think that the combination of all these different time periods, styles and design is pretty special.
One of my favorite pictures is the one with the pigeons peeking out of their homes. That building was part of a crumbling monument, from the Middle Ages, and the city is in the process of restoring it. Somehow the pigeons weren’t given the memo that the building is indeed under restoration and I loved the fact that given time, if a building isn’t used, some form of nature will take it back, in this instance, the pigeons. Hopefully they will be allowed to remain even after all the work is done.
I also enjoyed walking along the Rhone river, part of Arles history and its importance in history, is due to that very river. Its mouth leads into the Medterranean thus making Arles an important port of call dating back to the Phonecians. After them, it was the Romans until the fall of their empire, and from there it was a battle between the Saracens, the Visigoths, the Ostragoths and the Franks and lest not we forget the religious battles. All these influences make for a rich and complex cultural history that makes this small city one that I highly recommend to anyone who is even remotely interested in visiting France.
laurieanichols 