THE WORLD OF ARTS & CULTURE IN PICTURES By Maximillien de Lafayette
Lao Tzu was the first to say "One image is worth one thousand words." And so Did Marco Polo and Vasco de Gamma after having discovered unknown parts of the world. And to depict the unpleasant character of Popes, Michelangelo and Raphael froze their portraits in illustrations and pictures so future centuries and generation will remember those Papal characters. We see and understand our universe through photographs. Sure, we feel the cosmos and its parallel world with our hearts and imagination but, only photographs capture the moment, the message, the hidden, the revealed, the damned, the sacred, the holly and the forbidden. In this special issue on world's arts and culture, we tried to illustrate and depict our "current" world with photos which in my opinion are the the truthful messenger, voice and echo of our societies around the globe. Some photographs are hilarious while others are melodramatic. Some are refreshing while many others are alarming. Imagine the world without poetry, music, arts, dance, sculpture, happy children playing and dancing on the top of the hills and wild rose blooming in the valley. Imagine the world without photographs to capture those precious moments in our lives and thoughts which come to life through the lenses of talented, artistic, outrageous and madly delightful photographers. We toured the world and captured it for you on photos. Enjoy the show, and remember two things in your life. Every time you give from your heart, you grow one inch taller. And every time you take a good dammed picture, you add memories, dear souvenirs, ultra dimensions, meaning and perhaps, just perhaps, a few more colors and life to the the album of our world, yours and mine...
Photos from left to right: Hundreds queue outside the Louvre in Paris for free entry to the museum during printemps des musees, an annual national museum event. Photo: AFP A soccer fan relaxes in the empty stands of Maracana stadium during a Brazilian National Championship match between Fluminense and Vasco da Gama, in Rio de Janeiro. The game had fewer than 7000 in attendance, though Maracana can hold about 100,000. Photo: Reuters.
Photos from left to right: Susan Egan and Lisa Richards in Susan Egan's Cabaret dressing room/ bathroom on Broadway in 2003! (Copyright 2004 Lisa Richard). Photo caption: "I love this picture. We were taking publicity shots for the show Nunsense, and I posed like this as a goof. You should have seen the faces of the people driving by as they spotted this wine-drinking, smoking, mechanic nun. You can't see it in the photo, but my nails are painted bright red, too." Lisa Richard.
