Description
The scene is taken from the back of the hall, at the level of the worshippers. On the patterned tiled floor, cushions and small prayer desks are lined up in regular rows, each bearing its booklet; the women, dressed in the grey tunic of lay Buddhists, settle in one by one. At the far end, the altars layer haloed statues, lotus flowers and calligraphed panels, in a profusion of carved wood that black and white reduces to a single substance of shadow and silver. The image rests on this discreet contrast: the gilded solemnity of the setting and the modesty of the plastic stools, the fans, the ordinary gestures that precede contemplation. And then that gaze, at the centre, which turns the situation around — the photographer observed by the woman he observes. A moment suspended between everyday life and the prayer about to begin.
