iPhone photography: Black Swan

Perfectionism and passion in Black Swan, a film about ballet, competition and nervous breakdown, now playing at the Grand in Stockholm. Here’s a quote about creativity from the movie that I find inspiring:

iPhone photography: Cinema Grand

Speaking of passion, I love old movie theatres! The atmosphere, the details and the anticipation that the cinema environment builds for the film. Grand opened in in 1933 and was the creation of architect Björn Hedvall and artist Gunnar Torhamn. The Grand has become known for being the cinema that prime minister Olof Palme visited with his wife just before he was assassinated in 1986.

iPhone photography: Film stars. Baker, Crawford, Garbo and Wong

The doors to the auditorium are adorned with film stars in intarsia. Symbolising four continents; Josephine Baker represents Africa, Joan Crawford America, Greta Garbo Europe and Anna May Wong symbolises Asia.

iPhone photography: Statue. The Grand. Stockholm.

This statue in the auditorium comes to life as the lights get dim, and casts dramatic shadows on the piece.

iPhone photography: Curtain at cinema Grand

The globe on these cinema curtains continues the theme of international film that runs throughout the design of the movie theatre. Who is the figure holding the spotlight? Could it be Theia, the Titan goddess of sight (thea) and shining light of the clear blue sky (aithre)? The mother of Eos (Dawn), Helius (the Sun), and Selene (the Moon). The goddess of light?

One of the dragons from The Nine Dragons handscroll (九龙图／九龍圖), painted by the Song-Dynasty Chinese artist Chen Rong (陈容／陳容) in 1244 CE.

After trying, without success, to photograph birds this Saturday, I’ve still been thinking about them. Birds. And trees. Light and dark. So today I’ve been reading about mythical firebirds with brightly coloured plumage. The Phoenix lives a long life, and then is consumed by flames of its own making, only to rise again from the ashes. This lonely bird (there is only one Phoenix) is a universal symbol of the sun, mystical rebirth, resurrection and immortality and represents a cyclical process of life from death.

I discovered that the firebird is found in many cultures, the earliest found in the Egyptian Bennu (meaning “to rise brilliantly,” or “to shine”), the soul of the sun god Ra. The Persian sacred bird is called Huma or “the bird of paradise” or “bird of fortune” and looks similar to a heron. Compassionate Huma is said to have both the male and female natures in one body, each nature having one wing and one leg.

Death of a Phoenix, burning in the flames.

The Greeks and later the Romans called their firebird Phoenix, φοίνιξ, meaning the color purple-red or crimson and pictured the bird more like a peacock or an eagle. According to Greek legend, the Phoenix lived in Arabia close to a cool well. Every morning at dawn, it bathes in the water of the well and sings such a delightful and sweet song that Apollo (the god of light and the sun), would stop his chariot (the sun) to listen to the enchanting song.

Fenghuang is the Chinese correspondence to the phoenix, a chimera composited of many birds including the head of a golden pheasant, the body of a mandarin duck, the tail of a peacock, the legs of a crane, the mouth of a parrot, and the wings of a swallow. Gentle and immortal Fenghuang brings good fortunes and the expression “Dragon and Phoenix” signifies wedded bliss. And then I started to read about Chinese dragons, with their long, serpentine bodies, a supernatural or spiritual symbol of heavenly power… And all this started with flocks of birds that refused to let themselves be photographed.

Detail of the painting The Nine Dragons, by Chen Rong (active c. 1235–1260), painted in 1244 during the Southern Song Dynasty. The painting was done with ink on paper. It is now located in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.