Pavillion Sully

I got the name from an engraving above a clock in the center of the building above the archway, that says: Pavillion Sully, but of course it must have a better name then that. I believe if you walked through the archway you came to the courtyard of the Louvre with the crazy glass pyramid.

That pyramid caused a big controversy and I can see why. I don’t care what people say, they don’t go to Paris to see contemporary art. They go to see art that was once contemporary. In other words, they (myself included) would like to see a great building in honor or Van Gogh. Possibly a buildig that brings back the feeling of the night pool hall – all hallucinogenic yellows and greens and probably the result of too much drink, or was he eating his paints. Whatever. The world that people come to see wasn’t about angles, pyramids, or modern statements. And on top of all that, not even an original idea.

But, I lived around the corned from the Pavillion Sully, and got there early, several times, hoping to find it empty. You could do it if you arrived a bit before sunrise. Why I should even want to find it empty – that I don’t remember – but the building is lined with larger than life statues – and that seemed to be all it needed at the time.

And twenty plus years later, scanning the empty courtyard – with the memories of seeing the glass pyramid on the other side – and waiting there while the sun came up and tourists began to line up; and I would soon be one of those tourists.

Just like New York. Hard to know which is the most photographed city in the world, Paris or New York (probably New York) but the issues for the photographer are the same: make this shot that has been done a million times (literally) different; somehow – different. And even harder, don’t make it look like it was different for the sake of being different. That it is just a very simple picture that didn’t have any planning. A picture of a building that I’m not even sure I know the real exact name of. But it feels right to me. Yes – it does.