The Martinique Island Dear Reader I am pleased to be in touch with you again after a two-month absence. A few months ago, I had a chat with you in another report to say that, unfortunately, I was unable to publish the Iran Journal of Architecture on a monthly basis as things stand. You know, what counts is to be alive and well, to have insight and keep in touch. I opened my heart to you and wrote that the lives of photographers at my level are always spent on a temporary basis. We never know what will happen tomorrow (you might say no one does! I will say not in that sense). We do not know where we will be next and doing what. In the Stray Cats of Tehran report, I wrote photographers are like 6x4 lorry drivers – when we go to port, we do not know whether we will go to Shiraz next or Neyshabour (this article is presently available on my personal site; it is funny and worth reading). As I was saying, you probably know that I was in the Caribbean for a while, on Martinique Island, getting its modern architecture (1920-1960) on film. Perforce, I stopped over in Paris for three days to get ready for my trip to the Caribbean. On my return, I also spent a couple of days handing the photographs over to the clients, the Architecture d’aujourd’hui modern architectural magazine in France. Perforce, I also went to Geneva for a couple of days where, as you know, the Agha Khan Foundation presides, in order to choose the pictures for the Kuwait Modern Architecture book which I had shot last December. Coming back, I had to stop in Milan for a day to take care of some affairs, unsuccessfully. As a result: I was unable to get on with the Iran Journal of Architecture affairs for a couple of months. In the meantime, due to work pressures, I was unable to photograph Paris (photographing Paris is always very different from the previous time). Of course, when I talk about getting something on film, it means over 6000 shots. Obviously, I did take photos of Paris and Milan, but not as I had hoped. Here, you will see some of the shots of Paris and Milan. But, I really wanted to talk to you about something else. When I was in Fort de France, I came across an architectural style comparable to that of Hawaii. I took numerous pictures of Fort de France and I am planning to organize two shows at the Artists Forum in mid-autumn on the architectures of Kuwait and the Caribbean. Therefore, what you will first see in this section is a number of photographs from the modern architecture of Martinique for which I had gone to the Caribbean. In the second section, you will see a number of photographs from Fort de France architecture, about which I have already talked to you. In the third section, you will see a number of photographs of the sunset, the Martinique panorama, the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea – just to make you a little envious. In the fourth section, there are a number of photos of Paris and, in the fifth section, you will be presented with pictures of Milan. The photos of Paris and Milan will be more numerous on my site for now, and a more complete collection of Fort de France will be added mid-autumn. I hope you will enjoy these photographs and forgive me the delay in publishing the monthly magazine. Kamran Adle |