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freezing cold, with Catherine. We had been
in Morocco, we came from the south to the
north. I already knew Morocco, Syria and
Egypt; I was deeply interested in Islamic ar-
chitecture. It was a last minute decision, we
had some extra days, and we decided to cross
to Spain. We took the ferry to Málaga and the
bus to the Alhambra. It was very, very cold,
and no one was there. The Alhambra was
less restored then, it was somehow decrepit,
it was very beautiful: with the clouds and
the freezing winter, one had a kind of epic
vision of the place – very strong –, and I was
carrying with me the knowledge of previous
visits to key Islamic buildings, gardens and
landscapes. For me the Alhambra is the north
of something, not the south. Many Europe-
ans think that it is the south. For me it is
north, and the way I came is the way that
one should come. So the Alhambra is like a
magnet to me. It has this kind of attraction.
It is a force that comes in different times in
my life but for different reasons. I remember
running into Oleg Grabar in 1978 when I
was also teaching at Harvard. It was just
after the vacation:
-Hi Oleg, how are you? Did you have a
nice summer?
-I am in complete panic! He said.
-What is the matter?
-I am writing a monograph about the Al-
hambra, and I am late… and I don’t really
know about the Alhambra.
And he wrote that book: the monograph
on the Alhambra. And I reread the book
recently. The strong side of Oleg’s vision of
the Alhambra is meaning. It is the investiga-
tion of meaning: understanding the symbols
in relation to the political context, etcetera.
The weak side is perception, form, space, and
the vibration of the work of art.
To me the Alhambra is just the visible veil
over all kinds of things which are invisible.
As a larger atmosphere it is an extraordinary
garden, it is a palimpsest. It is in fact many,
many things. You cannot say what the Al-
hambra is exactly, yet everybody can feel its
presence. Everybody is moved by it in some
way or another. But what I wanted to do is to
reveal through the camera lens some of this
poetic presence: especially through water,
light, transparencies, things dissolving, the
depth of shadows, the vibration of forms, the
ornament. I thought a lot about the notion of
mediation. The other thing which I enjoyed
very much in exploring the Alhambra is that
everything is a microcosm. In the Palace of
the Lions an inscription refers to it as “an
infinite ocean.” There are allusions to the
great universal images from the Quran, of
the heavens, light, water. There is also much
ambiguity in the texts and in the reality,
because the stone becomes water, the water
becomes stone, and both are dissolved in
light, and light becomes something else.
JNB: There is a wonderful book which
deals with the matters you are talking about:
Eye and Mind by Merleau-Ponty. He men-
tions: “I am looking at the swimming pool
and the reflection in the water, but where
is the swimming pool? Where is the reflec-
tion? It is not in the water, it is not in the
