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Making Photos of Cultural Heritage
Making Photos of Cultural Heritage
Sergey Shchekotov-Alexandrov
© Sergey Shchekotov-Alexandrov, 2023
ISBN 978-5-0060-7309-8
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Sergey Shchekotov-Alexandrov
MAKING PHOTOS OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
In the book Making Photos of Cultural Heritage, a documentary photographer from St.Petersburg, Sergei Shchekotov-Aleksandrov, tells us about some of his trips during which he took photos of objects of cultural heritage.
There is information about 16 monuments of material and non-material culture from seven countries in the book.
The photographer collaborates with the St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum
He is a member of several creative unions.
One of them is the WORLDPRESSPHOTO Society in Holland.
© S. Shchekotov-Alexandrov
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS THIS BOOK ABOUT
The idea of this book came to my mind when I decided to publish some of my books in 2020.I have many photos associated with various cultural monuments in my photo library.
Before moving to St. Petersburg, I photographed cultural monuments, but not much. Since 2014, I have started to take photos of cultural objects more often. I began to participate in the traditional St. Petersburg international cultural forums in 2015. And since 2016, within the framework of these events, I have begun to organize my photo events of the “Instances of Heritage” cycle.
The book includes information about four such photo events that were conducted in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.
Each chapter is devoted to one photo event. The book shows and comments on some of the photos, gives information about the concept of events and how they were held.
ABOUT THE CLASSIFICATION OF CULTURAL MONUMENTS
I classify cultural monuments based on the approach proposed by cultural heritage specialists working under the guidance of UNESCO.
It is known that UNESCO is an international organization that deals with a variety of issues of science, culture, and education. In particular, it deals with the issues of preserving cultural heritage. The organization was created after World War II. Today it includes more than 195 countries.
So, according to the definition of UNESCO, cultural heritage is classified on three distinctive platforms.
The first platform is material heritage. The second is non-material heritage. The third is underwater heritage. The first platform is divided into two groups: World Heritage (that is, those monuments that are artefactitious, as they say) and natural heritage (made without human interference).
We will focus mainly on material cultural monuments in my photo events (and in the book).
HOW THE ST. PETERSBURG INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL FORUM WORKS
St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum is a relatively young public event. It has been held since 2012. Also, there are similar cultural forums in other regions of Russia. They include, for example, the Moscow Cultural Forum, the Ural Cultural Forum, etc.
A variety of Russian and foreign cultural figures meet and communicate at such events.
The St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum is the largest cultural event in Russia. It is visited annually by about 30,000 registered participants. About 100 countries send their representatives to the forum. There are a lot of regional delegations.
The forum has an internal structure: 14 sections, 3 tracks, a business site, Lecture Hall 2.0, a site for guest countries, a festival site, contests for art patrons and cultural workers. And many other programs.
I hold my photo events of the cycle “Instances of Heritage” as a part of one of the sections named the “Preservation of Cultural Heritage”.
COPYRIGHT ISSUES
Photos depicting the objects of cultural heritage are separated from other types of photography. For example, from portrait photos, or the photos of sports, or still lifes, nature, etc., because the cultural heritage has, figuratively speaking, authorization.
Or, to put it simply, the objects of cultural heritage are under the supervision of state organizations, under their tutelage.
What does it mean? Usually, these objects are museums. The state pays for their maintenance and restores them. It is forbidden to make photos of them in order to have some commercial profit. And in some museums, if you want to take a photo, you have to pay. Or sometimes they prohibit making videos or taking photos with a flash on.
Sometimes you need to get special permission to take photos. In other words, it is difficult to make photos.
This is how I explain why cultural heritage events in specialized photo sites (such as photo galleries, photo festivals or photo museums) are extremely rare.
Today it is popular to hold special photo contests, for which the photographs of the objects of cultural heritage collected from professional photographers and hobby photographers. I will talk about this a little in the fourth chapter of the book.
Chapter One UNESCO SITES
EVENT CONCEPT
The event was made based on the idea: to show photos and videos of two famous UNESCO sites in India – the cave complexes of Ajanta and Ellora.
I came up to A.O. Zagorsky, the moderator of the section “Preservation of Cultural Heritage”, with an idea to hold an evening of documentary photography as part of the 5th St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum. The idea was supported by O.V. Ryzhkov, who at that time was the head of the section “Preservation of Cultural Heritage”. My offer was accepted. The event was conducted in the Municipal Budgetary Institution of the Centralized Library System of the city of Gatchina in the Central Library named after A.I. Kuprin in November 2016.
THE AJANTA CAVE COMPLEX
The site dates back to the 2nd century BC. This is a former Buddhist temple and monastery cave complex located in the state of Maharashtra. It is a rock in the form of a horseshoe with 29 caves.
Let’s imagine mountains. And lots and lots of rocks. In these rocks, some kind of “rooms” were hollowed out – temples. In addition, rock paintings and sculptural compositions were also created there.
The skill of sculptors still surprises us. The colors of many paintings have not yet faded. And scientists fail to unravel the secret of making these colors.
The temple complex is located deep in the forest, and it is quite difficult to get there.
Each cave has its keeper from the museum. At the entrance to the complex, guidebooks that include descriptions of each cave are sold. And those who want to get into the caves need to go along a long rocky corridor that has safety fencing.
You cannot stop wondering looking at it.
People lived here, ate, prayed, died, had children.
The temple complex was built on the Silk Road. Therefore, travelers with trade carts often stopped there, which, of course, provided some financial support for building and construction works.
Rich Indian kings also helped the forest monks to maintain temples. What impressed me?
First of all, the age of these caves. They are more than two thousand years old. Of course, I looked at these amazing colors for a long time, which were applied by artists more than two thousand years ago.
I learned that sculptors and painters worked in so-called family guilds. And they did not reveal their tricks of the trade outside their family. That is why the secret of making non-fading colors has remained a secret. Apparently, a dynasty of a craftsman was stopped.
The cave complexes of Ajanta have a long history.
It is known that these temples were abandoned for a long time. Only in 1819, they were accidentally discovered by British soldiers that hunted tigers in this area. India was a colony of England at that time. Therefore, information about the “cultural wonder” very soon became known in London and then spread all over
Europe.Interestingly, the researchers of the Ajanta rock paintings concluded that they showed the history of Indian civilization. It is known that the age of Indian civilization is 5 thousand years. So, the paintings reflected a life of three millennia. In addition, various religious Buddhist subjects were depicted on the frescoes.
I noticed that a lot of tourists from different countries come to the Ajanta.
site. ELLORA CAVE COMPLEX
I spend a little bit more time in the Ellora cave complex.
I spent the night in the hotel of the settlement, which is located next to the
The Ellora rock complex dates back to the 6th century. It includes 34 caves.
We drove about 200 kilometers by car from the Ajanta to the Ellora.
The cave temples of Ajanta were made by hollowing out “rooms” (caves), and the temples of Ellora were mainly carved out using the “top-down” method. In addition, certain sculptural compositions were made along with the construction.
For example, the figure of a huge elephant was made simultaneously with the construction of the cave itself.
I have not been to Buddhist caves, but I have been to several Hindu and Jain caves. There are a lot of sculptural compositions in Hindu temples. These temples look very ornate. Jain caves, on the contrary, are very modest. It was explained to us, the tourists, that the richer people had richer temples.
It is interesting that the temples of Ellora are, in fact, a united cave complex. And priests of three different religions lived together there for a long time. This is a manifestation of a tolerant attitude in India.
There is such a story associated with the most remarkable of the temples, the Kailasa temple, a magnificent, perfectly preserved example of Dravidian architecture. According to the legend, the temple was erected by the raj of Ellichpur Edu in gratitude for the healing with water from a nearby spring. The temple is located in the back of a yard side carved out solid rock. There are colossal statues of Shiva, Vishnu, and others made of stone in the granite canopy above the entrance. Behind the canopy, there is a large statue of the goddess Lakshmi, resting on lotus flowers and surrounded by elephants.
An interesting service is provided here for tourists: small vans (some kind of museum taxi) transport tourists from one part of the cave complex to another.
HOW WAS IT
The library staff, where my event took place, did a great organizational job. There were about 30 members of the audience. The event visited local television journalists.
Before presenting my photo and video works, a local resident, a famous dancer of Indian dances, held a mini-concert. Then the representatives of the Russian-Indian Friendship Society, invited by me, spoke and said many good words about the friendship between India and Russia.
There was a teapoy with oriental sweets and Indian tea.
Also, I and the library staff prepared small exhibitions of Indian books.
My speech was received with great applause. In a word, it turned out to be a wonderful evening of documentary photography!
Chapter two FORTS. FORTIFICATIONS
ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF THE EVENT
The idea of the event was to collect images of forts and fortifications from my archive, make some additional photos on the subject, and then create and conduct a two-hour public multimedia program for the 6th St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum.
I knew that there were countless fortifications in the world. Almost always people in different parts of the world live in a state of war.
Fortifications are also great sites for documentary photography. This is exactly what I wanted to say at my event.
A program was created using photos, videos and infographics from five collections: two of them contain photos from foreign countries (Turkey, India) and the other three include photos from Russia (St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod region).
I will tell you about the photos of each of these collections later.
SELJUK FORTIFICATION IN TURKEY
Alanya Fortification is a medieval fortification in the city of Alanya in southern Turkey. Most of it was built in the 13th century. The fortification is located on a rocky peninsula 250 meters high near the Mediterranean Sea.
I was in Alanya in November 2014. It was a tourist trip with my wife, Raisa, we stayed in Turkey for 11 days.
Alanya is an ancient city, it starts its history from the II century BC. Today it is a major tourist city, hosting tourists mainly from Europe, especially from the Scandinavian countries. Of course, tourists from Russia also spend their vacations here.
In the 13th century, the Seljuks conquered Kalonoros (that was the name of the peninsula near which the city is located) and renamed the city to Alaye in honor of the Seljuk sultan Ala ad-Din Kay-Kubad. During the reign of Kay-Kubad, the city reached full flowering. At that time, a significant part of the new fortification (which has survived to this day), a shipyard and several mosques were built. Alaye became a major commercial and military port.
In my photos, you can see some parts of the fortification, the residence of the Seljuk Sultan.
The fortification is quite well preserved, and today it is a museum that is visited by many tourists every day.
What impressed me?
Firstly, you can admire the views of the enchanting Mediterranean Sea from the high walls of the fortification. You can imagine people living here and soldiers being on guard, admiring the local beauties.
Secondly, the fortification museum is “intertwined” with countless private houses and cottages. And when you drive along the road, you do not understand, if you are in a private residential area or the territory of a museum. It is great!
Sultan Ala ad-Din Kay-Kubad, during the construction of his Muslim fortification, left a small Orthodox chapel, which was built during the period when the city was under the rule of the Byzantine Empire. This chapel today requires restoration.
THE PRATAPGAD FORT IN INDIA
The Pratapgad Fort is located in the mountainous settlement of Mahabaleshwar (Maharashtra) in India.
I visited this place in November 2015.
India has a rich military history and is a home to over 100 forts and fortifications.
The mountain settlement of Mahabaleshwar is located 250 km southeast of Mumbai and is the most visited mountain resort of Maharashtra. The resort is a large plateau with an area of about 150 sq.km. It is located at an altitude of about 1,500 meters above sea level. The population is about 18 thousand people. There are many long beautiful roads on the plateau, where you can walk or ride a horse. Mahabaleshwar is famous for its honey, strawberries, raspberries, potatoes, beans, lettuce, and carrots.
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