Chancery Estate
Diary Monday, December 7th, 1998: Yesterday went with Raoul
to Red Hills and Chancery Estate, photographing opulence, bhutu opulence. Took
splendid photographs, which I hope will come out. What was interesting was the
contradiction. Here are these gigantic, highly visible, very brash
castles of centrifugality set against the hill, painted white, bright with their elements of display
and conspicuous waste and yet when we went to photograph them we were often
stopped or dissuaded by guards or workers, or even the owners themselves. What
is the gap between the wish to photograph the image and the intention behind the image?
And do not come to me with explanations of primitive magic. The contradiction
is more straightforward and far more interesting than that.