One of Van Gogh's paintings. And we were standing right there!

September 17
Ah, the first field trip. The photography students went to Arles to attend a photo exhibition that was city wide. We were pretty much given a map and told to have explore. Lets start with some history about Arles. It's a Roman city that was taken over in 123 BC and expanded from there. It's far better known for the time that Van Gogh spent there, making over 300 drawings and paintings of the city. The photo festival that we attended has been happening there since the 1970's.

The first camera :)

Alex, Jennifer, Callie and me :) With 3-D glasses

The Cloister of Saint Trophime

At the Ernst Haas exhibition

So when we were let loose in the city, I went with Alex, Jennifer and Callie and we got as far away from the big group as we could. We ducked into the first exhibition that we found, which was called Camera Lucida(s), and it featured the first camera ever created, as well as exhibiting old photographs in a digital manner. There were huge screens set up and you could scroll through miles and miles of pictures. Our favorite part of that section was photos taken as 3-D images. We all put our 3-D glasses on and were astounded by the photos that we saw. They were so beautiful, the depth and clarity in them was amazing, and it really did feel as if you could reach out an touch the images. From there we wandered around the same general area, looking at an exhibition of Ernst Haas's work in the Cloister of Saint Trophime. We saw so many exhibits (http://www.rencontres-arles.com/A09/C.aspx?VP3=CMS&ID=A09P1315) from different artists, and wandered a lot. It was nice to be in a small group, but as usual hard to be with photo majors. We would all see the same things, take pictures of the same things and so on. Liz described it perfectly the other day in class; everything is visually seductive. I agree completely. Anything that I point my camera at is beautiful, it's so hard to control what I'm seeing. It's just so different from what I'm used to seeing around me.

Saint Trophime

But, back to the photo show. We saw so many amazing things. My overall favorite was titled "The Innocents" and was photographed by Taryn Simon. The photos themselves were so large and beautiful, but her subject matter was edgy and interesting. She photographed men and women who had been wrongfully convicted of a crime, and after spending years in jail, were finally found innocent. She took them to the scene of the crime (where they had never actually been before) or to the place where they were arrested and photographed them. The effect was stunning. ( Her website: http://www.tarynsimon.com/#. If you scroll to the bottom you can click to see some of her imagery, though none of what I saw is there) (or google Taryn Simon The Innocents to see some of the images I saw, and then imagine them 4x6 feet).

Anyway. I'll let the photos I took in Arles speak for themselves. It's hard to describe exactly what it was like, just an experience that feels fleeting, but impacting.
We came back to Lacoste after that, and went to Cafe du France for wine, and had a really good time. The people here are so unique, but I find so many similarities to people that I know, and it's funny when we all get together. There's a really interesting dynamic of people here. I'm not really good friends with too many people in my own department because I spend so much time with Maddie and our collective friends (who are mostly performing arts majors), so being with a majority of people who do what I do is certainly interesting. Always food for thought.

On of the converted train stations for the festivals

Train station

Alex at one of the exhibits

The basis for Van Gogh's "Der Garten des Spitals in Arles"

The worn down stone at the front of the cathedral. And two small bulls drawn in. They have bull fights in the city, it has a lot of Spanish influence.