Kloostergang in het klooster van Agios Stefanos in de Meteora before 1910

Frédéric Boissonnas made this small photograph of a cloister in the monastery of Agios Stefanos. You can see how the building rises above the landscape, as if it were part of the rock itself. Look at how Boissonnas has captured the play of light and shadow in the cloister. I can almost feel the cool air and the weight of the stone as it sits perched high up in the Meteora. I wonder, what was it like for Boissonnas to travel to such a remote location and capture this image? The way the light catches the edge of the rocks reminds me of Cezanne somehow. The old masters, even when working with new technology, were in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas, inspiring one another’s creativity. Photography, like painting, is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.