Window Light

otdoor light spills into the open window and doors onto tiled floor

An open door to any old building can be an invitation to a photographer and I’m no exception today as I walk by. I have been inside this place before, several times actually, but the open door still calls me for one more visit – my last day here in Saigon. This old Provincial Palace with its 25-foot ceilings and colonial architecture usually brings me here in the middle of the day when the heat makes it impossible to be out in the sun. Today I decide to come early in the morning, the air is cooler and the light is low streaming inside the open shutters of the windows.

The first floor is a museum, but much of the rest of the building is open space, former ballrooms and massive bedrooms mostly empty. A historical treasure that receives surprisingly little foot traffic.

I spend a lot of time walking around. Never in a real hurry to shoot. It’s enjoyable to really feel the grandeur of the rooms. Taking in the size and scale they create. Walking from corner to corner seeing how the light strikes each wall from the different angles. Imagining the people who have been here before and the history contained within. An adjacent hallway I have never shot before has a row of windows that highlight the patterned floor tiles below. The space is pretty much empty of color so it’s not much of stretch to visualize it in black and white.

There is something satisfying about returning to familiar places to shoot. Visiting previous pictures and discovering new ones. The open doorway. An invitation to return again.