New York based photographer Robert Polidori has spent the past twenty-five years chronicling the preservation of Versailles. Preservation against the onslaught of some 3 million yearly visitors.
Versailles, Appartement of Madame Adélaïde, Painting of Marie Clotilde Xavière de France, by François Hubert Drouais
Versailles, 1er Étage, Corps Central, Chambre à Coucher de la Reine, Wall Detail
Versailles, Dorures et Boiseries
Polidori’s pictures are as much an exercise in still life photography as a comment on the notion of restoration. Exquisite and opulent subject matter, photographed in painstaking detail, makes you wonder if restoration is anything more than maquillage of a contemporary culture, rather than the preservation of the past: ‘historical revisionism and present society’s superego’ as Polidori suggests. - Wallpaper*
Robert Polidori is represented by Flowers Gallery.
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Now playing: Al Stewart - The Palace of Versailles
via FoxyTunes
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Caught in time
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2 comments:
This hidden door is a gem, and was a great feature of architecture in the C18th.
I love the second line you wrote here. so true!
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