The Evora Simplification

[TIL #12] About leaving most of the world out of the frame, and photographs that calmly ask a question.

Tales of Ink and Light are short stories and poems told with words (the ink) and photographs (the light). I send the Tales every two weeks. Every other week, I send Touches of Ink and Light: a photograph and the story behind it, as well as brief thoughts on photography and the creative process.

And today’s image is …

The Evora Simplification

Evora is a small town in Alentejo, Portugal, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a weekend with inconsistent light, a few beautiful moments of sunshine and only a small fraction of the touristic hordes that flock towards the Roman temple or the Chapel of Bones in the high season. In spite of the cold, there was some evening animation in the streets, groups of friends sharing a bottle of regional wine on a terrace, couples on the way to a restaurant. Wandering in the historical centre, i photographed the streets and houses.

Preservation may have a slightly artificial flavour at times, as if the town has been petrified into a cultural amusement park. It happens everywhere: any corner of the planet that is of some historic significance appears to have been terraformed to be hospitable to the uniform needs of the tourist species. And yet, the photographic eye is drawn to the colours, the textures and patterns.

What i mean, is that i was aware that I was only photographically scratching the surface of the life of the town, that i was leaving a lot of the complexity of human society outside of the frame by choosing to focus on the cobbles, the yellow paint on the walls and the lines of the narrow labyrinthine streets. Not included in the frame are the young beggar aggressively asking for food at the restaurant tables on the main square, the deep conversations at the book presentation in the cosy bookshop, the impact of tourism on the faces of people belonging to various layers of the population, the tired grey horse tied to a tree under the aqueduct, or the gorgeous fields and mysterious ancient stones.

Not that there’s anything wrong with leaving certain dimensions outside of the frame: to the contrary, it is a key part of defining an approach or a project. It just seems important to be aware of the choices you’re making, and all i’m just saying is that i was conscious that, as a first-time visitor and amateur of culture, i was only taking in a limited portion of — reality.

This image, one of my favourites from this short trip, results from a process of simplification. Removing as much as feels necessary and keeping a limited number of elements: the light on the wall, the colour, the window and the simple lines that provide a sense of direction. While it may evoke for me the other dimensions of reality that i might explore in the future, it does not include them. We see yellow, the textures that have progressively developed on the wall, a window: it makes an image that borders on the abstract and does not impose a meaning. This photograph is more like a serene question. What is it asking, can you tell?

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the open book of the moment

In my apartment, i use a couple of small easels to keep photobooks open for a few days or occasionally a few weeks. It is a way to engage into a longer dialogue with some of the images. And at the moment, one of the open books is …

Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt - a retrospective monograph that was published alongside an exhibition at the musée de la photographie de Charleroi in 2022. (I have to write about this beautiful museum at some point; for now, please trust that it is a place you should absolutely visit if you’re in Belgium.)

Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt (1947 - 2015), Belgian photographer and co-founder of the VU Agency. His personal work was often humorous. In the book, the director of the museum writes that Vanden Eeckhoudt’s photography shows « the interstices of everyday life, in small ceremonies where the strange and the absurd are no strangers ». The exhibition included very large prints in front of which i made long pauses. This is a large book too, and although it does not always rest easily on the easel, it is good to spend time with these images.

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It’s good to have you here. Don’t hesitate to write back to let me know what you think.

P.S.: Until the end of January, you can still download your free copy of trees, a project rooted in a childhood memory and a tribute to the mysterious majesty of the leafy beings. On my website at https://www.pierrefdocquir.com/trees, use the code TIL+TREES at checkout.