Some images conjure up an entire universe, an entire mythology for our imagination, our experiences and our dreams. The moon has that capacity, that power to make us dream, to make us believe that the limits of our lives are imaginary rather than real. There is something hypnotising about a crescent moon, we feel transfixed faced with this celestial beauty dressed in mystery and silence. Nature photographer Kurt Lolo took me by surprise on October 13th with his photograph of a crescent moon. It is a photograph that seems to erase the 238,856 miles in distance that separate us here on earth from the moon, a distance that depends on the lunar orbit. The photograph inspires a sense of intimacy, of proximity and a sense also of awe when faced with this lunar phenomenon that has fascinated humanity since antiquity. The crescent moon is already found as a symbol for the lunar deity Nanna Sin, in the cylindrical Akkadian seals of of 2300 B.C. , Akkadian being the language of the Akkadian empire of Mesopotamia, considered one of the first true empires in world history. Egyptian logographs also represented the crescent moon, and the combination of the crescent moon and Ishtar, representing Venus, also is found in ancient Middle East, often in triad form with a solar disc, and the crescent moon was also the emblem for Artemis and Diana in Greek and Roman mythology; in the Catholic Church, the crescent moon was associated with the Virgin Mary, and during the dynasties of the Ottoman Empire, the crescent moon as a finial for the roofs of mosques became associated with the religion of Islam. The crescent moon was part of the iconography of Sassanian Persia, which was the period of the Persian empire from the third century until the Muslim conquest of 651, and it became also a symbol in Islamic iconography after their conquest of the Persian Empire. The crescent moon would become adopted as a flag for the Islamic armies from the XIIIth century forward, and were used on Ottoman vessels from the XVIth century on. The crescent moon has a long history, and our fasciantion with the moon in all its phases continues to manifest itself in the culture and the arts today. One of the most successful rock bands in music history worldwide is the English rock band Pink Floyd, formed in 1965, who would be active as a band for 40 years. One of their most famous albums from 1973, had as a title " The Dark Side of the Moon ". A crescent moon obscures most of the moon's surface, and when we talk about the dark side of the moon, we talk about the fact that we cannot see the dark side from our perspective here on earth. In reality, both sides of the moon get an equal amount of light every two weeks, and also interestingly, no human has ever set foot on the dark side of the moon. Tidal forces slowed down the rotation of the moon to such a degree that we see only one and the same side all the time, a phenomenon that is called tidal blockage. A crescent moon is fascinating, since it only gives us a partial lunar view, which adds to its mystery alongside its gracious elegance and sensual curvature.
The crescent moon of Kurt Lolo fascinates me and it strikes me as a brilliant self- portrait of the methodical and precise nature photographer. It is the cerebral self - portrait of a person with a razorsharp creative perspective, with an alert intellectual imagination, who feels at ease in the immense and open emptiness of the universe. The photograph reminds me of the cerebral and intro-spective music of Pink Floyd, , especially of the 9th, which is the last song, on their album " The Dark Side of the Moon ", a song called " Eclipse ", whose content has a profoundly existencial and melancholic tonality, and that concludes with the idea that there really is no light, there really is no dark side of the moon, everything is darkness, its light is an illusion, as all light, an illusion of which humans have a deep longing and need. It is a rather insightful conclusion, in view of the fact that astrophysics have since discovered that the largest part of the universe is made up of dark matter.
Kurt Lolo's moving touching crescent moon photograph inspires a sense of realism and has a dreamlike quality all in one, it has a sense of scientific wonder and reassuring emotional intimacy. His photograph expresses a profound understanding of the nature of things and of humans and their obsessions, and their need to understand, to give meaning to life and its sorrows and black holes. What better way to manifest as a synthesis of all our contradictions, all our anguish, all our desires, than a bewitching photograph of a seductive and mysterious crescent moon?
Trudi Ralston
The research on the moon and its phases, and on the history of the crescent moon, and on the English rock band Pink Floyd, courtesy of Wikipedia.
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