** Contains images that some might find upsetting **
Anxious Journeys is an emerging series of photographs influenced by the Metaphysical art of the Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) and based on journeys I have made…
Pompeii
If there is a place that truly reflects the title of one of di Chirico’s painting, The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street’ (1914), it must be Pompeii. The Roman town destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 and rediscovered – almost perfectly preserved beneath the ash that asphyxiated it – many centuries later.
A time capsule, undisturbed, but a layout still as recognisable in today’s towns: the streets, the plazas, the banks, the theatres, the restaurants, the brothels and even the erotic paintings! Even more melancholy are the ghostly shadows of those who perished that day – reconstituted – brought to life – by re-filling the voids left in the ash by their bodies…
View these images on Flickr:
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All images © W N BISHOP