I just came across this beautiful series of sisters Mary, Jean and Maureen and simply had to share!
It was captured by photographer Rafael Goldchain over the course of 16 years and I think these ladies are mesmerising.
xez
* all photographs copyright © Rafael Goldchain, click to enlarge.
Mister Goldchain’s website can be visited at www.rafael-goldchain.squarespace.com
The gazes of these Algerian women have been etched in my memory ever since I first saw them, years ago.
I hate these portraits and admire these women.
The photographs were taken at Ain Tezine (Kabylia), in 1960 by photographer Marc Garanger, ordered to do so by the French army that had been occupying Algeria since 1830. By that time, France had been attempting to suppress the Algerian war for independence for several years and they were arresting and imprisoning entire populations of Muslim and Berber villages for suspected support of the insurgent National Liberation Front. Their villages were destroyed and their people were transferred into concentration camps.
When the army decided that all ‘resettled’ people should carry mandatory ID cards, Marc Garanger was tasked to photograph around two thousand portraits during ten days of stay in the area. As most men had enlisted with the rebelling NLF, it was mainly women that were captured, in real life and on film.
These women had never before come into contact with Europeans.
They were forced to remove their veils and headscarves, revealing their hair, skin and protective tattoos for the first time outside of the privacy of their homes.
They were to sit on a stool in front of a whitewashed wall while a stranger, accompanied by armed soldiers with machine guns, came uncomfortably close and pointed an unknown instrument at them.
This camera, is what they confronted: quietly, but most certainly not silent.
In her 2017 book Listening to Images, Professor Tina Campt explores a way of listening closely to photography and explains how “photographs originally intended to dehumanise, police, and restrict their subjects, can convey the softly buzzing tension of colonialism, the low hum of resistance and subversion, and the anticipation and performance of a future that has yet to happen.”
Two years after these photographs were taken, in July 1962, Algeria would finally have its hard-won independence.
When these women gazed back, it was in the anticipation of that victory.
And maybe it wasn’t the eyes that lingered with me all those years.
Perhaps it was their hum.
It is worth adding that Marc Garanger, a pacifist, tried to mirror his opposition to the war, as well as his respect for the subjects, by not just taking identity snaps but by framing dignified portraits at the waist. Attempting for his photographs to bear witness and hoping that they could one day bring awareness and lead to action against this human rights abuse.
In 2004, Garanger returned to Algeria to meet with the women he photographed almost half a century before.
This time, he was welcome.
xez
Zohra Gacem and her family in 2004, holding the identity photograph taken by Marc Garanger forty four years before.
Sources/Further Reading:
New York Times, Article 2010: Unwilling Subjects in the Algerian War
TIME, Article 2013: Women Unveiled: Marc Garanger's Contested Portraits of 1960s Algeria
TIMELINE, Article 2016: These Algerian women were forced to remove their veils to be photographed in 1960
How I met Marc Garanger and how the Algerians he had photographed welcomed him 50 years later, by Fatiha Saou
Burning the Veil, the Algerian War and the ‘Emancipation’ of Muslim women 1964-62 by Neil Macmaster
Once, when asked for his definition of paradise, Johnny Cash replied:
“This morning, with her, having coffee.”
He was of course talking about the Love of his life, June Carter Cash.
And although their relationship was undoubtedly complex and turbulent at times, their strong loving bond lasted throughout their lives.
Watch below how first June and then Johnny reveals their “secret” to a happy marriage:
And a quick snippet of these two lovers performing “Jackson”, which always brings a smile to my face:
Below, a moving love letter to June written on her 65th birthday and a beautiful To Do list Johnny wrote ca. 1969.
Furthermore, a simple heartshaped Valentine from 1987 and heartbreaking thoughts written down by Johnny...two months after June passed and just two months before they finally reunited again.
“We're soulmates, friends and lovers and everything else that makes a happy marriage.
Our hearts are attuned to each other, and we're very close.
I'll get up every morning at five o'clock and make the coffee, then start pacing the floor, wanting her to get up. But I'll let her sleep for a couple of more hours.
If she smells the coffee, she's up."
- Johnny Cash about June Carter Cash
paradise /ˈparədʌɪs/
1. A place or condition of great happiness where everything is exactly as you would like it to be
xez
Throughout their twenty-nine year relationship, Linda and Paul McCartney were inseparable.
They never spent a night apart, except for the 10 days Paul spent in a Tokyo jail after being arrested for marijuana possession.
Paul once said: "Every love song I write is for Linda."
Sadly, Linda McCartney was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995 and passed away three years later at the age of 56 in Tucson, Arizona- where the McCartneys had a family ranch.
The last words Paul spoke to her were as following:
"You're up on your beautiful Appaloosa stallion.
It's a fine spring day.
We're riding through the woods.
The bluebells are all out, and the sky is clear-blue"
Thumbnail Photograph by Harry Benson
So moving and beautiful...simply full of love.
Fine / fahyn/
1. Of superior or best quality; of high or highest grade.
2. Choice, excellent, or admirable.
xez
Photography by Linda McCartney and Harry Benson (last image only)
Cher’s longtime costume designer and creative collaborator, Bob Mackie (‘the Sultan of Sequins’) once said:
“She’s a chameleon, but you never lose her. You put a blonde wig on her and you still see Cher.”
And maybe that’s it…over the years, Cher changed her careers, looks and sometimes her mind- but she never lost herself or her moral compass.
Cher is all about equality and has never been afraid to say so.
Watch Cher on Necessities, from a 1996 interview with Jane Pauley, below.
Pauley: “You said a man is not a necessity, a man is luxury,”
Cher: “Like dessert, yeah. A man is absolutely not a necessity.
Pauley: “Did you mean that to sound…mean and bitter?”
Cher: “Not at all. I adore dessert. I love men! I think men are the coolest, but you don't really need them to live.
My mom said to me 'You know, sweetheart, one day you should settle down and marry a rich man'
I said, 'Mom, I AM a rich man.'"
...this wasn’t about RICH or MAN, it was about EQUALITY.
Thank you Cher, for being an icon with such endless style, humor and beauty.
Please continue to show the world that one can be what-and who ever they want to be, at any given time.
Necessity /nɪˈsɛsɪti/
1. The state or fact of being required.
2. An indispensable thing.
xez
Grace Jones on Gender, Sexuality and Identity- from a 1985 interview on an Australian current affairs program called "Day by Day".
Miss Jones never stood any nonsense and refused to be defined, especially by sexist and narrow minded tv hosts.
“It’s not being masculine, it’s an attitude really. Being masculine, what is that?
I mean can you tell me? What is being masculine?
I just act the way I feel.
[...]
That doesn’t make me anything.
I think it’s ridiculous trying to categorize people’s feelings.
[...]
It’s just do what you feel, when you feel like it, if you feel like it.”
Photography Thumbnail: Kate Simon, 1979
Thank you Grace Beverly Jones- for being fearless, beautiful and for giving us such wonderfully clear instructions.
Masculinity /ˌmaskjʊˈlɪnɪti/
1. Qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of men.
xez
When the Beastie Boys released the third single from their 1994 album Ill Communication “Sure Shot”- Adam MCA Yauch explicitly rapped away from sexist behavior of their past and straight into our feminist hearts:
“I’m gonna say a little something that’s long overdue
The disrespect of women has got to be through
To all our mothers and our sisters and our wives and friends
I want to offer my love and respect to the end”
By including this verse, the Beasties not only became men, they turned into allies and humans that grow and learn.
It made me feel warm and excited.
In a Tricycle interview from the same year, Yauch further explained:
”It’s just seeing things from a different perspective.
There was a time when we would joke around and say things that were disrespectful of women and think that it was funny, or that it wouldn’t hurt anybody, or that it would be taken with a grain of salt.
Then it became clear that that wasn’t the case, and we had to go through the process of taking a step back and realizing how those things affect other people.”
It wasn’t just words that the Beastie Boys shared, they continually went on to fight for rights..women’s rights, LGBT+ rights, human rights, both in their songs and in their public appearances.
Thumbnail photograph: Beastie Boys in Los Angeles, 1998 by Danny Clinch
Overdue /əʊvəˈdjuː/
1. Not having arrived, happened, or been done by the expected time.
2. Having been needed for some time.
xez
In 2008, Tom Waits read the poem “The Laughing Heart”, by Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 - March 9, 1994).
It feels to me as if Waits‘ voice takes Bukowski‘s words and helps them up, like a drunk back on their feet after a hard fall on a damp, dark street.
Then, together they look up, to notice the moon.
”That’s a beauty, yeah..”.
THE LAUGHING HEART
by Charles Bukowski
your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.
Marvelous /mɑːv(ə)ləs/
1. Causing great wonder; extraordinary.
2. Extremely good or pleasing; splendid.
xez
Eartha Kitt on Love and Compromise, from the 1982 documentary "All by Myself: The Eartha Kitt Story".
“It’s not for me to decide [if someone can live with Eartha Kitt].
That’s for someone who decides to live with me to decide.
Not for me.
Compromise? What is compromising? Compromise for what?
Compromising for what? Compromising for what reason?
To compromise for what? To compromise? What is compromise?
[laughs] Stupid.
A man comes into my life and I have to compromise?
You must think about that one again. [laughs. throws her head back in amusement]
A man comes into my life and you have to compromise?
For what? For what? For what?!
A relationship is a relationship that has to be earned!
Not to compromise for…and I love relationships, I think they’re fantastically wonderful, I think they’re great, I think there’s nothing in the world more beautiful than falling in love.
But falling in love for the right reason, falling in love for the right purpose.
Falling in love. Falling in love.
When you fall in love, what is there to compromise about?
I think if you want to think about it in terms of ‘analysing’- yes, I fall in love with myself and I want someone to share it with me.
I want someone to share me with me.
Many times [that has happened] in many ways.”
Com·pro·mise / ˈkämprəˌmīz/
1. To settle a dispute by mutual concession:
2. To weaken (a reputation or principle) by accepting standards that are lower than is desirable
xez
On this day, seventeen years ago- Miss Nina Simone passed away in France, at the age of 70.
When remembering Nina Simone, I often think back on this particular interview from a 1992 documentary by Peter Rodis. The intensity of her words, the emotion in her voice and the ever changing expression on her face, tell us hundreds of stories in the span of a mere minute.
Incredibly moving and powerful.
Nina Simone, when asked about what Freedom means to her:
“It's just a feeling. It's just a feeling.
It's like, how do you tell somebody how it feels to be in love?
How are you going to tell anybody who has not been in love, how it feels to be in love?
You cannot do it to save your life. You can describe things, but you can't tell them.
But you know it when it happens. That's what I mean by free.
I've had a couple times on stage when I really felt free and that's something else. That's really something else!
I'll tell you what freedom is to me: NO FEAR!
I mean really, no fear.
If I could have that half of my life. No fear.
Lots of children have no fear.
That's the only way I can describe it.
That's not all of it, but it something to really, really feel.
Like a new way of seeing.
Like a new way of seeing something."
Freedom / ˈfriːdəm /
1. The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
2. The state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.
xez
My eye was caught by these vintage and slightly creepy photographs of Newfoundland mummers.
Mummering used to be a tradition in Newfoundland and Labrador during the twelve nights of Christmas. People dressed up in old clothes, doilies, underwear…well, pretty much anything they found around the house, or at the houses of friends and neighbours, in order to become even more unrecognizable.
Mummers stuffed their costumes, covered their faces and changed their walk and voices, then went from house to house, knocking on doors to ask if they’re allowed in for a skuff (dance), a scoff (food) and a drink. Once inside, the hosts tried to guess the mummer’s identities and only when correctly identified, their masks came off.
When all mummers had been revealed, strangers became friends again and food and drink were finished together before the group travelled on to the next home.
Unfortunately, the tradition eventually turned sour and even violent, which caused the practice to be banned by the government in 1861. And although people in rural areas secretly continued to mummer up at Christmas time, there came a time when it really wasn’t common practice anymore to let masked strangers into your house.
Surprisingly, mummering began to take off again in the early 1980s, after a folk song about the practice became popular in Newfoundland. The tradition, now having outgrown its association with violence, was introduced to a younger generation and these days, St. John's in Newfoundland still celebrates the Mummers Parade.
Merry Christmas dear friend, may you party like a mummer with unlifted veil.
xez
The other day, while contemplating the year behind us and the unknown that lies ahead, I came across a fascinating clip of the red fox ‘mousing’ in the snow.
The beautiful fox has such absurdly good hearing, that she can pinpoint a mouse up to thirteen meters away and underneath one meter of snow. Wow.
Even more incredible, is the fact that the fox rarely has succes catching anything..UNLESS she’s facing north-east (20 degrees off from magnetic north, to be precise). By aligning the earth’s magnetic field with the angle of the sound waves she’s hearing, she calculates the exact distance and depth of her prey. And once the angle matches, she pounces with a success rate of 75 percent!
While looking at the fox with amazement, I thought that this is perhaps the best thing we can all do for the new year ahead- use our inner compass to position ourselves in the right direction and then, take a giant leap of faith.
We have to trust that we will come up with success, or at least with enough to eat.
xez
* Photographs by Cindy Goeddel, Michal O’Neal and Richard Peters, please click to enlarge and hover to see photographer credits.
Thumbnail photograph by Ashleigh Scully, footage by Discovery
“Bo and Chia are maybe my best friends here- I enjoy them very much-
The male lies on my window seat now with his legs stretched straight out behind him- looking like a fine big cattapillar.
They sleep in my room at night and in the day time are always just outside the door”.
- Georgia O’Keeffe in a letter to a friend
Three years after permanently moving to New Mexico, Georgia O’Keeffe received a Christmas present that would change her world; two ‘blue’ Chow Chow puppies.
It was the beginning of a love for the breed that lasted a lifetime and she went on to raise a total of six Chow companions, first Bo and Chia, later Inca, Bo II and Chia II and finally Jingo. All of them big and beautiful beasts, that she lovingly called her "little people".
Miss O’Keeffe’s New Mexico life was very much centered around the dogs and their loving care. When it got very hot one summer, she stopped going out on painting trips in her car, as the heat was too much for the dogs and she couldn’t bear to leave them.
Another time, she told an interviewer that it wasn’t possible to install a new heater at the ranch, because the only place that heater would fit, was her dog’s favourite sleeping spot.
Even the hair they shed in spring was saved once, to have it woven into a warm shawl.
And when her eyesight began to fail in the 1970s, she had white carpet laid in her Abiquiu studio, just so she could see the dark haired dogs better.
C.S. Merrill wrote about the special bond in her book ‘Weekends with O’Keeffe’, revealing Georgia O’Keeffe’s humorous side in doing so:
“She reached out and patted Jingo. The dog and Miss O’Keeffe had quite a rapport between them.
Miss O'Keeffe was telling little jokes about her, like she's so huge that she would run up to you and affectionately jump on you and knock you over, and she would walk halfway around the house in the morning just to avoid her, because she's so huge.
She said to her, “Jingo, you know the most beautiful thing about you is your tail.”
O’Keeffe made sketches and photographs of the Chows and often, she wrote about them and how they made her feel.
In a note to a friend, she shared:
“Bo and Chia astonish and amuse me, they seem to belong to adobe- a snowy world”
And when travelling away from Abiquiú in the autumn of 1960, in a letter to her sister Claudia:
“I have thought often of the dogs- wondered if they slept in your room or if they bothered you and were put out.
I have gotten so that I like having them in the room at night even if it sometimes is a little trouble – I probably miss them more than any other part of the house.”
The Chows seemed to be on her mind constantly, even after their passing. When Bo, her absolute favourite, tragically died after being hit by a truck, she buried him beneath a cedar tree at the White Place and wrote:
“I like to think that probably he goes running and leaping through the White Hills alone in the night."
They say the breed specific characteristics of the Chow Chow are being fiercely loyal, devoted and protective, with a proud and independent spirit. This literally sounds like a perfect match for Georgia O’Keeffe, who in her later life mentioned in an interview:
"It seems to be my mission in life to wait on a dog."
…now I just like to think, that instead of waiting, they’re walking, all together through their beloved White Hills.
xez
* Photographs sourced from various locations, please click to enlarge and hover to see photographer credits.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Humpty Dumpty…There’s just something about the tragedy that nobody could put him back together again in combination with his brilliant look, that fascinated me.
I made a tiny Humpty pendant in silver with shiny red sapphire eyes to honour this fantastic fragile friend.
And have alook below, to see a montage of some of my favourite vintage Dumpty’s of all time.
xez
* Found footage from:
Norman Z. McLeod’s 1933 Alice in Wonderland, a frightening 1983 Kinder Surprise commercial by the late Mike Portelly, Sesame Street, Jim Henson’s Mother Goose from 1990, Fleischer Studios’ 1936 Greedy Humpty Dumpty and a UB Iwerks ComiColor from 1935.
“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.”
- Jean Cocteau
I love Jean Cocteau’s art and he loved cats.
During his lifetime he did not only create a vast amount of illustrations, sculptures and murals of happy cats…Cocteau was also an active member of the Parisian ‘Cat Friends Club’.
He designed a wonderful membership pin for them and eventually even got voted as their Club President.!
Jean Cocteau shared his life with many cats and was quoted to have said:
“I prefer cats over dogs because police cats don’t exist”.
But his most beloved were perhaps a mighty blue Persian named Karoun and a stunning Siamese that went by the name of Madeleine.
Photographer Jane Bown took two portraits of Madeleine and Jean Cocteau at their Paris home.
After returning to London, she sent the prints to Cocteau and he wrote back on December 12th, 1950:
“Rare are they who think of those whose images they carry away.
And so I am very grateful to you.
All the proofs are magnificent.
Madeleine is in ecstasy over the Siamese cat.
All the household embraces you.”
A copy of the original letter that Cocteau sent to Jane Bown.
Karoun was lovingly called ‘the King of Cats’ by Cocteau and he even dedicated his book Drôle de Ménage to him.
You can see Faroun pictured together here with Japanese artist Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita at a Cat Friends Club event in November of 1950.
In 1959, Jean Cocteau decorated the tiny chapel near his house in Milly-la-Forêt with a beautiful fresco.
It was there, that he wished to be buried and if you would visit it now, you could notice that he made sure to be watched over by a friendly feline even after his passing.
You were an inspiration, Madeleine and Karoun!
xez
* Click photographs to enlarge.
While doing a deep dive into the seasons and how we experience them (see yesterday’s blogpost), I came across a special photo series from the sixties, titled “In An English Country Garden”.
In 1963, photographer Ken Griffiths followed a year in the life of Mr and Mrs Sweetman’s beautiful cottage garden in East Sussex. Every month, he took one picture on the exact same spot...12 photographs to document the passing of time.
Almost immediately, the series became less about the garden and fully about The Sweetmans to me. I noticed her leaning towards him, him becoming wet in the falling rain while trying to protect her from it and of course in the last photo...well, her absence hit me hard. He had taken her place, she must have passed away!
It moved me to tears.
When I began doing a little more research, I found that it wasn’t just me that was ready to embrace the sad ending of the series. Worldwide publications had interpreted the last photo like I did.
The truth however was different..Mrs Sweetman was happily alive at the time, it was just freezing! She decided to stay inside and on closer inspection, you can actually see her standing at the kitchen window. That’s why her husband stepped aside.
I love the Sweetmans for this giggle of relief they gave me.
Such a lovely reminder of how our mindset can influence our perception.
xez
* all photographs copyright © Kenn Griffiths (June 7, 1945- August 20, 2014), click to enlarge.
His website can be visited at http://www.kengriffiths.co.uk/.
The other day, I was reading the 1978 commencement speech that Kurt Vonnegut gave at Fredonia College in New York.
In addition to great advice on how to make money, win love and treat your ears, Vonnegut offers a gentle suggestion for a perspective change regarding the seasons:
“One sort of optional thing you might do is to realize that there are six seasons instead of four.
The poetry of four seasons is all wrong for this part of the planet, and this may explain why we are so depressed so much of the time. I mean, spring doesn’t feel like spring a lot of the time, and November is all wrong for autumn, and so on.
Here is the truth about the seasons: Spring is May and June.
What could be springier than May and June?
Summer is July and August. Really hot, right?
Autumn is September and October. See the pumpkins? Smell those burning leaves?
Next comes the season called Locking. November and December aren’t winter. They’re Locking.
Next comes winter, January and February. Boy! Are they ever cold!
What comes next? Not spring. ‘Unlocking’ comes next. What else could cruel March and only slightly less cruel April be?
March and April are not spring. They’re Unlocking.”
- Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut’s words resonated deeply and felt so true for my part of the world, as well as with my current state of mind, which feels a little…well, “stuck” to say the least.
In addition to Vonnegut’s words from the past, last week also brought me Jason Kottke’s thoughts, which offered a clear and hopeful advice in the secret to enjoying a long winter.
I will aim to combine these voices from past and present and will try to consciously work towards enjoying instead of enduring.
For now, let’s stop the waiting and start the day- with this little gem by Future Islands:
Photograph of the Winter Lofoten by Sergey Lukankin
xez
p.s: You can read Vonnegut’s wonderful Fredonia speech in its entirety here.
A collection of nine of his best commencement addresses , along with personal drawings and thought are combined in If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young.
Photograph by Richard Schmidt
In the early to mid nineties, David Hockney experienced so much loss, that he felt the strong need to reconnect with love.
He started to capture his two adored dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie and in doing so, he started to capture love.
Hockney himself has described the feeling as following:
“I think in January I wanted desperately to paint something loving.
[…] I felt such a loss of love I wanted to deal with it in some way.
I realized I was painting my best friends, Stanley and Boodgie.
They sleep with me; I’m always with them here.
They don’t go anywhere without me and only occasionally do I leave them.
They’re like little people to me.
The subject wasn’t dogs but my love of the little creatures.”
Painting Stanley and Boodgie required meticulous planning, Hockney had set up easels around his house and always kept a separate palette ready, in order to capture the dogs quickly and in their natural poses.
These never lasted long, since “Dogs are generally not interested in Art…Food and love dominate their lives.”
The 1995 exhibition and subsequent book, Dog Days was a huge success, endless people came to visit, even bringing their own dogs to see the pictures!
However, none of the paintings were for sale.
“They are too intimate, too personal”, Hockney explained.
You were great models AND friends, sweet Stanley and Boodgie.
xez
A lot of moths and butterflies engage in “puddling”- they land on water, manure or rotting fruit to feed.
Others, the so called vampire moths, feed on vertebrate blood.
And a few flying friends, visit the eyes of mammals or reptiles to drink fluids that provide essential moisture and nutrients.
Scientists call this Lachryphagy (literally: ‘tear-feeding’) and the behaviour has a poetic layer to it, that Rebecca Solnit touches on so very beautifully in her book ‘The Faraway Nearby’:
“Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds.
The birds sleep on, inadvertent givers.
The moths fly on, enriched.
We feed on sorrows, on stories, on the spaciousness they open up when they let us travel in our imagination beyond our own limits, when they dissolve the boundaries that confine us and urge us to extend the potentialities of our imperfect, broken, incomplete selves.
Those apricots my brother brought me in three big cardboard boxes long ago, were they tears too?
And this book, is it tears?
Who drinks your tears, who has your wings, who hears your story?”
Footage by Leandro João Carneiro de Lima Moraes, Carlos de la Rosa and Phil Torres
Music by J Mascis + The Fog
xez
This 14 karat golden ring was inspired by a snailcat, depicted in the 14th Century Maastricht Book of Hours.
I think it was either through @stephenellcock or @damien_kempf that I was first introduced to the magical world of medieval marginalia. These drolleries, or grotesques, were illustrations that decorated the margins of illuminated manuscripts, often of mixed and magnificent beasts.
My favourite creatures must be the snail hybrids that pop up all over the place between the 13th and 14th century.
Scholars don’t know exactly where they originate from and have offered many interpretations; from biblical (Psalm 58.8: ”may they be like a snail that melts away as it moves along..”) to satirical (comparing a snail to a heavily armoured knight), from being a metaphor for resurrection, to a symbol of the Lombards or perhaps a representation of class struggles.
But although they often surrounded heavy religious matter, marginalia rarely illustrated the text and most often have no direct relationship with it at all.
They truly constitute a world of their own.
They celebrate the freedom of the outer edge.
History often calls the medieval period the Dark Age, but these brilliant illustrations prove, that many medieval minds were full of light, humour and crazy curious creativity.
xez
