Palindrome in B&W

I “belong” to a group of artists who found their genre after decades of search in parallel with their professional training and careers seemingly totally different from their present artistic status. Many, like me, are trained in the medical sciences and have pursued their love of the arts in their “free time”. And one day, we all found the context and space to devote our days to the arts.

The Internet keeps us in constant touch, as we live in different states and continents. One of our favorite communication modes is to share our creative works (writings, paintings and photography) for feedback and discussions.

… So, a few days ago I shared a photo I took with a 1950’s Ukrainian 35mm camera to which I have fitted a 1948 non-coated Leica clone lens. I like the surprises in light transmission and sharpness these lenses can produce. It is the photo of a girl in a crowd, looking back, and wearing a faux lion hat.

“Something attractive about the moment” a friend replied. “No sure what it is but it is Gauguinesque. You recall his famous Manau Tupapau”?

“Sure, his Tahitian wife sleeping nude on her belly?”

“Yes, he called it “Spirit of the Dead Watching” as there is a ghostly shape at the end of the bed. There are many interpretations of that painting and comparisons made to Manet’s Olympia and to Borghese Hermaphroditus now in The Louvre. I guess it is the feeling your photo gives of being watched by a ghostly figure.”

“She does stand out in a relatively banal crowd,” I admitted.

“More than that,” he said, “there is the feeling of reciprocity. No, of a palindrome!”

“A palindrome?”

“You know, a word or sentence you can read forward and backward and it reads the same. Like Madam or Dad.”

“I know what a palindrome is. I even remember my favorite palindrome in biochemistry where nucleic acids combine in a special sequence – you remember the inverted repeating sequence AGTTGA?”

“We are done with biochemistry,” he said, “Let’s focus on Gauguin.”

“Ok, so how can a photo like this be a palindrome for you?”

“Well, I see a certain duality here, and my mind goes back and forth between the unknown and unseen faces in the crowd and this ghostly girl. Further, the girl is androgynous in appearance – more as a neutral spirit out of place, but as if she is keeping an eye on the crowd. That is the palindrome for me – you can go from the girl to the crowd, then in reverse, and the feeling is the same.”

“What does this photo tell you?” he then asked.

I thought for a few minutes before typing my reply.

“She has harmony in her smile,” I said. “A bit of a mystery, as if comforting.”

“It is a palindrome in Black and White,” he concluded.

October 9, 2016

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016