Chartres


39 Photographs

Media: photography

Number of images: 39

Print size: 16x20 inches

Execution: 2016 rev. 2020

“Where the incidents defy the probabilities and march just inside the borders of the possible.”

John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps


PREFACE

The cathedral of Chartres (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres) [1] has been depicted in visual form since the late 16th century first in woodcuts, followed by etchings and finally in photographs. Recent technologies (most notably cameras with cell phones) have accelerated the velocity of these images, the majority of which are made by tourists and prosumers which contrasts with the earlier work by commercial photographers. [2] While visitors (nee pilgrims) journeyed to Chartres before and after the completion of the cathedral, tourism dramatically increased after 1979, when it was added as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Tourists today outnumber the congregation as sightseeing has replaced genuflection. [3]

My interest in creating an artwork about Chartres did not manifest itself until I visited the site. However, once there I faced a dilemma: how do I add to a 500 year old visual canon that is not duplicative or derivative?

As I explored the interior space there was a paucity of congregants and it was spare and barren. My perception: it had lost it’s utility and catered to a shrinking congregation which was its lifeblood. It was like being inside of an observatory that only focused on itself.

Leaving the interior for the exterior of the building, I walked to the steps of the North Portal. I started to photograph what I can best describe as “photographs of things not photographed at a historic site”. This creative urge was to counter the multitude of images of the soaring interior space, the lush vibrant colors of the windows and the intricate Baroque carvings of the Choir Wall. But as I photographed, I realized that my solution to my dilemma lay not in creating new visual representations but instigating the creation of mental constructions.

My thirty-nine photographs of a single step at Chartres are bland and hold little visual interest: this was my intent. They are placeholders to look at after reading the text, switching from photographic image to recall memory to creation of visual constructs.

ONE

The mountains of Olympus, Sinai, and Kailash in past and present are considered sacred. [4] Other revered mountains: Japan with Koya-san and Fuji; in China, the Five Great Mountains, the Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism and the Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism; in Australia there is Uluru / Ayers Rock; in the United States, Mount Everest; and in Africa, Kilimanjaro. Mountains and high places are where burnt offerings and sacrifices are made, [5] bridging heaven and earth, where humans climb and the gods descend.

TWO

Mountains and high ground are also an advantage for combat by extending human vision with height and creating a physical challenge for attackers moving uphill. [6] As early as the 5th century, Sun Tzu wrote [7]

"With regard to precipitous heights: if you arrive before your adversary, you should occupy the raised and sunny spots and wait for him to come up."

and,

"If the enemy has occupied them before you, do not follow, but retreat and try to entice him away."
THREE

The hill where Chartres cathedral is located has been considered sacred ground for the last several millennia. In pre-Roman times, the Druids congregated there once a year near a well located in a oak grove.[8] These gatherings were religious and also served as a venue to negotiate disputes between individuals and clans. In 52-51 BCE, when Julius Caesar conquered the city, the Celtic temple became Gallic-Roman and was called Autricum. In the 4th century CE, as the Roman empire transformed into the Holy Roman empire, a Christian basilica was built upon the site.

FOUR

Fire has always been the destroyer of churches. [9] The 4th century basilica burned in 743. The replacement church burned in 858. The rebuilt church was destroyed by fire in 1020. A new and larger successor also burned in 1134. In 1145, construction began again, however, it too succumbed to fire in 1194, destroying everything save the west facade. Between 1194 and 1235, the cathedral took the shape that we recognize today.

FIVE

The verb "spy" which means "to watch without being watched" and came into use in the mid-13th century. [10] It is not surprising that the word was created at the same time that the Gothic Cathedrals were being built throughout England and Europe. A cathedral made from cut and chiseled stone, rising to the heavens emulating a mountain, brought to the city the experience of the aerial view heretofore only seen by those who climbed.

SIX

One of the earliest written accounts of climbing a mountain for aesthetic and intellectual curiosity is by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). Petrarch wrote a letter to his former confessor, Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro, in which he describes climbing Mount Ventoux in Provence with his brother and two servants (April 26, 1336).

"To-day I made the ascent of the highest mountain in this region, which is not improperly called Ventosum. My only motive was the wish to see what so great an elevation had to offer."

Further on, he writes,

"At first, owing to the unaccustomed quality of the air and the effect of the great sweep of view spread out before me, I stood like one dazed. I beheld the clouds under our feet, and what I had read of Athos and Olympus seemed less incredible as I myself witnessed the same things from a mountain of less fame."
SEVEN

A week after the outbreak of the "Great" war on July 28, 1914, John Buchan and his family rented a house in Broadstairs, Kent, a resort town between Margate and Ramsgate on the east coast of England. While there, he celebrated his thirty-ninth birthday and began to write a contemporary novel about a German spy ring called the Black Stone whose intent was to steal the defense plans of the French and English navies. Buchan described his novel as a "shocker" that blended adventure, espionage and international intrigue. When it was published in the fall of 1915, "The Thirty-Nine Steps" became a bestseller benefiting from "spy fever" and anti-German sentiment drummed up by the press. [11]

Fans of Buchan included the teenagers Graham Greene and Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). The book was also a favorite on the battlefield. One soldier, G.G. Hardy, wrote to Buchan,

"The shocker arrived just before dinner-time and though with an early rising, sleep is very precious to us, I lay awake in my dugout till I had finished the last page. This I take it, is the supreme test of a "shocker," one should never be able to lay it down. It is just the kind of fiction for here. Longer novels I cannot manage in the trenches. One wants something to engross the attention without tiring the mind, in doses not too large to be assimilated in the brief intervals of spare time [...]. The story is greatly appreciated in the midst of mud and rain and shells, and all that could make trench life depressing."
EIGHT

Hitchcock did not consider turning the book into a film until 1934. Screenplay credit lists Charles Bennett and Ian Hay but Hitchcock and Michael Balcon also contributed (without receiving acknowledgment). The film is considered one of his finest and is ranked by the British Film Institute at # 4 out of the 100 best British films of the 20th century.

One of the plot twists in the book and film that still resonates today is the theft of documents by human memory. Nothing physical was taken or copied: instead a mental image was constructed with all the qualities of a photograph but without its physical characteristics. [12]

NINE

In 1919, Douglas MacArthur was appointed superintendent of the United States Military Academy (West Point). During World War I (1914–1918), officers were trained and graduated as quickly as possible for the war effort. After the war, under MacArthur's leadership, he changed the curriculum to include an emphasis on athletics and humanities as well as military science, in order to provide a well rounded education for the student soldiers.

Welborn Barton Griffith, Jr. benefited from this education. In 1921, at the age of 20, he entered West Point and upon graduation in 1925, was promoted to Second Lieutenant, Air Corps. As a career soldier he served throughout the United States and the Philippines before returning home to teach tank warfare in 1940. He was promoted to a full Colonel by 1942, and was third in command of XX Corp, G3, which planned and deployed for battle, ground and armored divisions as well as artillery and air support.

In June, 1944, Allied forces had two goals following the successful landings at Normandy: maintain their tenuous position on the coast of France and move inland and push the German army back. By mid August, they had secured Normandy and had advanced to the Loire when they reached the outskirts of Chartres. On August, 16th, 1944, XX Corp G3 was given a briefing on the status of Chartres. According to Eugene G. Schultz:

"The news was disturbing because there were stubborn pockets of resistance from German machine gun and mortar emplacements located at strategic spots within the city. It was also learned that the Corps Artillery had an order to shell and destroy the old and famous medieval Chartres Cathedral which stood at the center of the city.[13]

The decision to destroy the cathedral was made to protect (American) human life: it was assumed that the Germans were using the two towers for observing the positions and movements of Allied forces. Col. Griffith wanted to confirm that the cathedral had to be destroyed and left the briefing to investigate with only his jeep driver.

A French priest wrote in his diary that day,

"I saw for myself a passerby carrying away a big piece of sculpture. It's said that the Germans were shooting out of vandalism. According to others, it's the Americans who were told that enemy soldiers were in the bell towers. We see in front of the iron gate of the Prefecture, all the Americans, the crowd which is gathering, the flowers that are offered, and the flags that are unfurled."[14]

Later, when the priest is inside the cathedral,

"Suddenly, the gunfire becomes more intense, reverberating a hundred fold in the cathedral, then commotion and men's voices. Some Americans have come in by way of the north door and cross the cathedral toward the south door, rifles in their hands, helmeted and out of breath. This manhunt in a holy place shocks and scares us."[15]

According to reports, Col. Griffith entered the cathedral, searched the nave and side chapels, then the two steeples. Finding no enemy soldiers, he placed a American flag in one of the steeples and contacted the Corps Artillery to rescind their order to destroy the cathedral.

Later that day, a few miles outside of Chartres at Lèves, Col. Griffith encountered a German roadblock. Finding that he was outnumbered and out-gunned, he left to find reinforcements. When he returned, he rode on top of a tank to engage the enemy and was killed in action during that skirmish.

For his service, Col. Griffith posthumously received from the United States government the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross. From the French government, he received the Croix de Guerre (with Palm) and the French Legion of Honor (Chevalier).

AFTERWORD

These 39 photographs of a single step at Chartres is meant to create a sideways and crab-like visual journey. The horizontal focus distracts us from the view above and perhaps the ascension to which we aspire.

NOTES
[1] "Cathedral" means the church of a bishop.
[2] John Ruskin, the English art critic, bought or commissioned daguerreotypes of Chartres, Rouen and Rheims in 1848, only nine years after the invention of the photographic process. In 1849, Ruskin acquired his own daguerrean equipment and taught John Hobbs, his servant, how to photograph. He also directed him to photograph subjects for him. Hobbs was later replaced by another servant, Frederick Crawley, who also became Ruskin’s personal photographer.
[3] 1,200,000 visitors and 300.000 pilgrims per year are the estimates by the Chartres Office of Tourism (2016).
[4] Olympus, the ancient Greek religion. Sinai, three religions: Jewish, Christian, and Islamic. Kailash, four religions: Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism and Bon Po.
[5] Some examples from the King James Bible (1611):

(a) Genesis 22:2 "And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."

(b) Exodus 19:20 "And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up."

(c) Isaiah 56:7 "Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people."
[6] The United States Armed Forces have codified this with OAKOC, which stands for Observation and Fields of fire, Avenues of approach, Key terrain, Obstacles and movement, Cover and concealment.
[7] Giles, Lionel (Translator), "Sun Tzu on The Art of War" London, Luzac &Co.: 1910, p. 103-4
[8] The Celts:

(a) The Druids were an elite class of the Celts that included the priests and doctors.

(b) The original Celtic well, which goes down to the Eure River and is now known as Puits des Saints-Forts, is located in the crypt below the cathedral floor.

(c) Per Pliny the Elder, the oak and the mistletoe were both considered sacred by the Celts.
[9] Church history is also the history of conflagration both accidental and intentional.
[10] From the French "espiier" which can mean "observe, watch closely, spy on, find out".
[11] Even royalty was not exempt: under public pressure, King George V changed the family name to Windsor from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
[12] The character of "Mr. Memory" was based on a real life music hall performer called "Datas". Hitchcock made the spy with a photographic memory central to the film while in Buchan's book the character was not as prominent nor sympathetic.
[13] Schultz, Eugene G., "The Ghost in General Patton's Third Army" Xlibris: 2012, p. 160
[14] Ibid p. 318
[15] Ibid p. 318-319
POSTSCRIPT
The photographer, Robert Capa, arrived in Chartres on August 18, 1944, two days after Colonel Welborn was killed in action. Capa photographed French Resistance fighters, German prisoners of war and French collaborators, including the French women who lived and had children with the German soldiers. These women were humiliated in public by having their heads shaved. His photographs can be viewed on the Magnum Photo website here.
EXHIBITION NOTE

Prints are to be mounted 4 feet (1.2m) from the floor in close proximity to each adjacent print.
A photograph from the Chartres 39 Steps photographic series

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