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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty One: Ruins and wrecks: photographing the rusted, busted past > Dust to dust, El Badi Palace, Marrakesh, 2006
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27-DEC-2006

Dust to dust, El Badi Palace, Marrakesh, 2006

Almost all of the tiles that once covered the floors of this vast palace have long since vanished. Much of it was carried away in 1683 to celebrate the power of the Sultan of Meknes – the ruthless Moulay Ismail. Yet 500 years after its installation, fragments of the lavish tiling still remain, although nature now seems to be staking its own claim to it. The crumbling tile and the flow of green leaves from it demonstrates the ever-present tension between the work of man and the march of nature. I cropped the image into a long rectangle to intensify that tension.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/100s f/4.0 at 7.4mm iso100 full exif

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Phil Douglis02-May-2007 18:32
Thanks, Ceci, for hearing Seeger's words in this image. They certainly sum up what I was trying to say here. As both you and my picture say, nature endures, while the work of man does not.
Guest 02-May-2007 18:17
"God bless the grass, that grows through the cracks, they roll the concrete over it and try to keep it back; the concrete gets tired of what it has to do, it breaks and it buckles and the grass grows through!" So wrote the activist and environmentalist Pete Seeger about the power of humble grass to reclaim earth, transform landscapes and pesevere. Your picture is a beautiful metaphor for the fleeting impression that man leaves, however artistic it was. Eventually the "leaves" prevail, and all will return to nature.
Phil Douglis26-Jan-2007 00:05
I agree, Tim. Man uses the work of nature to beautify his own efforts, no matter what the cause or purpose it serves might be. In this case, these tiles celebrated raw power, a power that eventually weakened and vanished, just like these tiles will eventually crumble to dust and return to the earth from where they came. The fresh green leaves will wither and die as well, to be replaced by new ones. Meanwhile, generations of Berbers and Arabs have lived their lives here in Marakkesh and eventually vanished into the brown soil. Thanks for your observation. It made me change the title of this picture.
Tim May25-Jan-2007 17:44
All of this is from the earth - the tiles were created by elements taken from nature and process through man to create a beauty which still lasts though it fades eventually - the green is fresh new and beautiful, yet it too will fade - for me, this image is about cycles.
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