Apropos Rodin

A mesmerizing collection of photographs of Rodin"s sculpture, taken at the Musée Rodin and at the Musée du Luxembourg, Paris.It was a chance visit to the Musée Rodin nearly ten years ago that sparked Jennifer Gough-Cooper"s renewed interest in photography, and the exceptional results will be exhibited at the museum this autumn. Her photographs of such works as The Kiss and Adam and Eve reveal the beauty of the stone, the light from the grand eighteenth-century windows, and the movement of the visitors in the room, to create soft Impressionist forms with a wonderful painterly quality.A thought-provoking text by Geoff Dyer makes us realize how photographs of sculpture can reveal qualities in these works of art that are often not immediately apparent. As he writes, the photographs enable us to gaze on Rodin"s sculpture "with the same intensity and absorption that he regarded—in very different ways—the men and women who modeled for him. What Gough-Cooper has photographed is nothing less than the awakening of stone, stone awakening to the camera"s touch." 73 color illustrations.