There’s A Story…

Posted by Viktoria Michaelis on July 1, 2012 in Personal | ∞

There’s often a story behind each and every photograph, article, recollection, work of art that you come across, it’s just a case of finding it. My little story begins with my desire to take a wide range of photographs of the Dom (Cathedral) in Verden, something which I have been doing for a while and with some success; several of the photographs have been published here and on my Google Plus account.

It begins with the overall picture, with the long view, with few details but a general idea.

You can tell a lot fro the big picture, but it is often the details which bring more interest, more inspiration, make the icing on the cake, so to speak. Initially I wanted to capture the feeling of the long windows in the cathedral, stretching up towards the sky and illuminating the inner church. the often go unseen, the light is there but, unless they have been made of stained glass, no one sees them. Windows are everyday things, you only notice them when they are shut, dirty or gone completely.

Then I saw the smaller, well hidden window. It fulfills its function as its bigger partner, but is so well hidden you need to sneak into the niche behind the church building to find it. And then, the story behind…

which ends high above with this statue of a man, half out of the wall, stuck there for all time between heaven and earth and cast in stone.

The story is that one of the churchmen, responsible for the finances, allowed his fingers to get a little bit too greedy, moving coins from the Church into his own pockets. As with all crimes, eventually he was found out, the books not balancing at the end of the year, and he was faced with his crime. The story goes that he was brought face to face not with the vicar, the bishop or any other Church figure, but with the devil himself.

The devil accepts no excuses, he already knows the truth and no amount of wheedling or lying is going to bring any other decision than that which he made before the confrontation. The devil grabbed the hapless man and dragged his soul out and up through the highest walls of the building, the body struggling against fate, hanging on for dear life until, as all things must be between the material and immaterial, the physical body became stuck between wall and rafters while the devil claimed his soul for all time.

The story was related to apprentices and other workers, to churchmen of all types as a reminder that honesty is the best policy, and an honest man has no need to fight against the devil, and lose, in such a manner.

Of course, you can always go for the other story: the figure is merely a conduit to guide water from the roof and away from the area where the faithful gather, but I rather like the devil’s version..

Love & Kisses, Viki.