03.06.2006
MICHEL CHAVARRIA, France ❧
"SERIES: HOMAGE TO THE YOUNG, THE NEW & THE EXCEPTIONAL CREATIVE TALENTS AROUND THE WORLD"
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"MY WAY HOMEIntroducing Michel Chavarria from France, a gentleman with the eye of an artist. The above photograph was taken in the beautiful South of France where Michel lives. Michel has been able to capture for us in this one shot all the vividness, strength and extraordinary melange of colour from his home and environment, and we are hit with incredulous disbelief. Does such an amazing scene of such stupendous beauty really exist in this world?
This is my path; this is my way home; it leads to my little paradise, to my source, to my hobo’s castle...
Here, my every day’s springs suddenly reawaken, all my hidden hopes immediately revive, and my life becomes finally true...
This path could tell so many stories, could echo so many laughters, and could also pour such a lot of unforgettable tears...
Here, even the stones have a crying soul. They have the memories of those proud and brave men who have sculpted the whole mountains with their own hands, who have irrigated this hard and barren earth with their own sweat and tears, and who have sung with their pain screams the most beautiful songs Mother Nature had ever heard...
They have extracted millions of stones from the ground during years and years, just with a pickaxe, just for being able to cultivate some vegetables or some vine, just for staying alive and free. Everyday, when I see these stones walls, I’m always thinking about these gentlemen: I’ll always be very grateful to them; they have built my ramparts against the bad winds, the last bastion of my own liberties, where the virgin moon and the dying sun can reflect, when the daylight just hesitates for a short while, their most wonderful and ambiguous silver-gold dreams and then naturally enlighten my way home ..." --michel chavarria
Now, the challenge, what would happen if one were to take an artistic, creative soul out of his familiar surrounding and element and place him in a country half the world away, what would we see through his eyes?
A picture is worth a thousand words. This is where these photographs taken by Michel during his trip to China have to do the talking, accompanied by the touching poetic verses and wonderful introduction Michel Chavarria has added as an overture to his beautifully orchestrated ensemble.
"OUT OF MY FANCY HEAD
Out of my fancy head
Are jumping so unique images
Of infinite light and magical colours
That I would love to tell the whole world
About my everlasting and phantasmagorical dreams...
.°.
The dragon and the clouds melt in a unique and magical wedding of the earth and the sky, Zhangzhou, Fujian province, China, April 24th 2006, just before the sunset, during a village birthday celebration...
Gorgeous colours, simple joy, children laughs, kind dragons, confidence in life, respect, tolerance, sharing and pure happiness...
I was just proud and happy to be there..."
--michel chavarria
"ALWAYS SOMETHING BIGGERModesty should always guide our paths...There always something bigger,
Always something stronger,
Someone higher
Or faster...
We have to learn that we are not the centre of the universe but some tiny puppets desperately dancing at the edge of a dying world...
But if we open our ears and our heart,
There’s always something better,
Always something brighter
Someone nicer
Or smarter...
And then life can become a paradise...
.°.
Guangzhou, China..." --michel chavarria"WITH MY OLD BIKE
With my old bike I’ll ride all around the world
And I’ll be smarter and smarter
Because I’ll meet you all...
With my old wings I’ll fly all over the world
And I’ll be higher and higher
Because I’ll see you all...
With my old heart I’ll live all around the world
And I’ll be younger and younger
Because I’ll love you all...
.°.
Zhangzhou area, China, at New Yu Feng Factory, after a big rainfall..."
--michel chavarria
"UNTIL THE END
Until the end I’ll be fighting,
Until the end I’ll be shining,
In spite of all this darkness
And desolation around,
Until the end I’ll be with you,
I’ll keep you away
From soul’s death
And oblivion,
I’ll be the last
To think of you,
Until the end I’ll be loving you....°.This was a very interesting but very difficult shot to take because there was no light at all, a very low and grey sky, and big rainfalls all day long...
And there was such a lot of mud all around, I was sinking into it up to my knees...!!!
By the way, I’m quite satisfied the way it came out and how the tree seems to radiate because of the big white space among the grey and soft clouds... During big works to raise -I think- another new and huge industrial area, they finally decided to save this lonely and beautiful tree from the endless appetite of the machines; surely they had some remorse to destroy it, so they let it live on the top of this uncommon and strange little hill, almost eaten by the insatiable teeth of our irreversible progress...
Sometimes, I do keep a little hope in men’s attitude..." --michel chavarria
"MUDDY WATERSMichel was so kind and gracious to allow me to interview him and to share with everyone an insight into his world and his person:
Oftentimes,
My thoughts
And my actions
Are like muddy waters,
And I feel myself
So obscure,
So cloudy,
That I would wish
To stay and pray
Under a pure rain
During the eternity
And even more,
Just to clean
My bleary eyes,
My dirty soul,
And my shady heart,
To finally
Recover again
My real self...
.°.
Zhangzhou, China, after the rain..." --michel chavarria
Which of your photographs do you feel are your best, and why? What was the inspiration behind them?
Michel: As I have a limited time for photography (because of my work) I just take some walk on any Sunday and try to shoot all around me. So, landscape photography is my favourite and where I feel comfortable...
You have a very poetic way of capturing your images, after seeing the result of your shots, how do they move you? What do you feel?
Michel: One of my passion is to bring some poetic or conceptual feeling and emotion to any of my pictures. I call my style “Poetrimage” so the mix is major for me. Usually, I take the picture first, then when I’m editing it with Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, it brings some idea to my eyes and heart and then I write the comment/poetry/prose...
Do you feel that your photographs carry something of you? Some of your spirit?
Michel: I hope so...! I should be very happy and proud to bring some fresh ideas about humanism, freedom, beauty to my watchers through my pictures. The images are just the vector to say my feelings about the world around me.
Do you remember the first photograph you took? How did you feel about it?
Michel: Yes, I remember it, it was in a park in Toulouse, France, it was a magic moment because I was sure I had captured something special, even if it was really ordinary, I’ve just fixed a moment of life, a mood through black & white, a feeling through my eyes...
What do you feel is important for a good photographer to have or know about his camera and tools?
Michel: I think that technique is just a tool, not a goal. I am not interested in all that technical stuff, it is honestly boring me... I prefer to concentrate on the subject or crop or emotion than to think about aperture of speed shutter...
Who do you admire if you are to think of a known photographer? Who are the photographers who inspire you but are not known, and why do they inspire you?
Michel: Mainly Gilad Benari and Bernardo Medina. They bring so much beauty on my screen with their photography, they are really great artists and friends. They are doing photography with their heart and soul... and I like that. And their works are so well done together with a lot of emotional touches in a modern style, I love that...
Do you feel you will continue to take photographs? Why?
Michel: Oh yes, surely... It’s now a big part of my life...! I try to combine photography and my work and that's fine... More and more exciting!
What would be your advice for any person inspired by your pictures and wanting to take up photography? What would you tell them?
Michel: My advice should be that it's better to create one’s own style... That's more important than anything else...! Not copying anything or anyone, just throw one’s feelings through the lens and through the screen... Be yourself in your life and in your heart, and share your sensitivity around you... That's the secret of happiness... and of success...!
"MIRROR OF MY SOUL
My mirror just shows me. Me but not inside me. I would really like to see through it, to discover my real soul, my own true self. I am not afraid. I will pay the price for the knowledge...
And maybe one day I’ll find this magic mirror among the universe mysteries, maybe in the moonlight’s thousands rosettes, maybe into the crystal fairies’ iced lakes, maybe into the sky’s abalone mourning whispers or just simply into the eyes of the one I love and who loves me…
I have taken this shot on august 19, from the Abbey ramparts of the Mont St Michel, north-west of France, at low tide. It was about 5:00 pm and the light was very surreal, like a grey light, which is absolutely impossible, but here’s the result…
The big fluffy clouds were softly reflecting on the merged salt and sand surface which seemed to be made of pearly smoke…
The sea, so far away, was secretly flirting with the horizon, waiting for the night to come back again and wash my thoughts away…" --michel chavarria
editor@bluemango.tv