Guellala Museum I Photo

Photographer’s Note

Shot inside of the Guellala Museum.

The museum is fairly big, featuring a large collection of traditional artifacts used in the near past in daily life, economic activities, ceremonies, and festivities, most of them staged with dummies and music. Although a bit naive (or because of that), it's a charming place to visit, specially if you have children. It's located in a low hill on the top of the village of Guellala, facing the small Gulf of Bou Grara, the shalow piece of sea that separates the island from the continent. From its entrance one enjoys a very nice view of the village, the gulf and the mainland.

Guellala is famous all over Tunisia for its pottery and it looks like this was one of the main reasons to have the museum built here.

Jerba or Djerba is a charming small island on the Southern coast of Tunisia. It's relatively well preserved, at least if one takes into account the level of 'development' (construction, mass tourism, you name it) it has. It is a very pleasant place for spending some days on the beach and complement that with some sight seeing, driving and strolling in the little villages. The 'monuments' aren't nothing special 'monumentality' wise, but it has a couple of charming little mosques, with an original architecture traditional of the island, an old castle originally built in the 13th Century by one Aragonese (Spanish) King of Sicily, a nice sinagogue, which is the more important Jew pilgrimage site of North Africa, and two ethnographic museums, one in the small capital town of Houmt Souk and this big one.

The island is referred in ancient historic texts since the time of Carthaginians, who had an important settlement here. They called it Meninx, "the land of the receding waters", a reference to the high tides observed in the island, much unusual in the Mediterranean, where it's rare to observe any noticeable tide activity.

Some believe that the island appears in Homer's Odyssey as the 'Land of the Lotus-Eaters', but Menorca and Gozo also claim that glory.

During Roman times the island was famous for the production of purple cloth, which only the imperial family and very high rank oficials were allowed to wear, as it was a sign of imperial importance.

Throughout history, the place had many foreign rulers (Arabs, Sicilians, Spaniards, Genovese and Turks), periods of independence in a more or less extensive scale, staged much revolts and didn't enjoy much long periods of peace until the French domination arrived at the end of the 19th Century.

It was an important terminal for trans-Sahara trade, since the times of Carthaginians, maybe 2300 years ago or more. One important sad business were slaves, whose trade only ended in 1846. In the 16th Century it was also an important pirate base, namely for the famous Turkish corsair and admiral Barbarossa Pasha and his protegé, Dragut.

The island had an important Jewish community that is now almost extinct, after most of its members having fled to Israel after the independance of Tunisia in the 1950's. However, most of those emigrants still keep their ties with Djerba, with most of them returning in the Summer holidays and during more important religious festivals. The relations between Muslims and Jews are traditionally very good and peaceful, but recently there were a couple of nasty incidents (1985 and 2002) in the major sinagogue of the island, in which several persons died.

Nearly all the population is Muslim. Aproximately half of them are Kharijites. The Kharijites, also known as Ibadites and Wahabites (not related with the others much more famous Wahabites of Saudi Arabia), are an ascetic and quite puritan sect of Islam more or less hostile to both mainstream Sunnis and Shi'ites. They are very strict in their religious practice and austerity. Interestingly and happily, that doesn't seem to imply any animosity against other Muslims or other religions, as the island is a very easy going place, where one feels little or no animosity against foreigners, well at contrary. Apparently they guard their fundamentalism to their own conduct and don't try to impose their believes and moral to others.

Links:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djerba
* http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,10325-2289002.html

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I have other posts of the museum (II, III, IV and V) and a 'travelogue' of this trip of mine to Tunisia (not a real travelogue, I have set it up just to group the posts).

ribeiroantonio, Retagger, celinaconroy, henrytf, balatrek, Benedict, superpau, pboehringer, bostankorkulugu, zeca, sadeik, tatadalou, Charo, Mondaychild, a1b2j, batalay, maloutim, xuaxo has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

deblink (2548) 2006-11-01 17:02

Hi Jose,
I love this simple minimalistic image. The large teracotta urns look superb. Thank you for sharing.
Cheers,
Debbie

darrasin (2860) 2006-11-01 17:53

Hello Jose! Your colors are brilliant here especially those whites against the sky. You're exposure was just perfect. Well done!

Regards.
Doug

ribeiroantonio (21885) 2006-11-01 21:43

Primeiro uma palavrinha sobre a tua nota. Está excepcional e gostei particularmente das duas últimas frases. Só é pena que assim não seja por todo o lado!
Agora a foto. Gosto muito de ver os diferentes tons que conseguidte com o branco e també gosto do contraste com o azul do céu. Está muito boa.
António

Retagger (26) 2006-11-01 23:11

Hello Jose,

A very simplistic photo that works very well. The terracotta pots contrast nicely with the bright white of the floor and walls and the deep blue cloudless sky. Your note is fantastic history lesson.

Overall: Excellent...

Regards,
David

UnTrained (0) 2006-11-02 2:49

Hi Jose,
I think there is a bit the risk, that your wonderful photo gets a bit lost because of the large (and informative) note. Writing this I have to scroll a lot to come back to the picture itself.
The composition is excellent. The colors are used in a very effective way. White as the dominant factor, blue sky in different shades and the red and brown amphoras. POV wonderful chosen. And why are these amphoras (or urns) presented here? Anything more than pottery?
Cheers Ulf

celinaconroy (717) 2006-11-02 2:53

Hi Jose,
Apart from the clarity of your composition and the simple colours, your choice of perspective offers a welcomining character into this part of the museum. I also like the featured terra cotta amporphic jars that are tucked into the corners of the buttresses.
Best wishes,
Celina

henrytf (977) 2006-11-02 4:30

Bonjour José
Superbe photo - belle maîtrise des lumières et des couleurs ce qui n'est pas toujours évident.
Je ne connaissais pas l'endroit et cela me donne envie d'aller y faire un tour lors de notre prochain séjour.
Le commentaire qui accompagne la photo est très intéressant aussi.

balatrek (7419) 2006-11-02 8:31

Hola Jose,

Nos muestras una imagen sencilla pero llena de interesantes contrastes, si solo existiese en la toma el blanco y el azul podría resultar un poco monótona, pero el color de las tinajas hacer su trabajo a la perfección aportando unos tonos más cálidos a la composición, una nota muy bien elaborada, gracias por compartir.

Saludos
José

Benedict (7062) 2006-11-02 8:49

hi jose-
superb foto! very clear and sharp!
i like those old jars.....mabuhay!!
benedict

superpau (1460) 2006-11-02 9:22

Hola Jose
impresiona la blancura de las paredes. Creo que el haber tenido un sol fuerte tambien ayuda a realzar ese efecto. Muy buena la foto.
Besos, Paula.

oochappan (22032) 2006-11-02 19:38

Hi Jose
we are on the same level of attention doing lots of WS and indeed I talked a lot of treshing the rice on the street, terrible when I go round with my moto, but never took a shot yet ... so a gaol to go for.
I crossed your gallery mostly for looking the one I like most and this one stands out for the softer blue sky in contrast to the often seen flashy polarized ones and by opening, I saw immediatly the perfect texturing in the white contrasting walls what's not so evident in these kind of shots. the perspective on the wall right creates a fine depht in the play of light and shadows not harsh and the geometrical graphical lines in this roof with a nice colored detail of these big vases. You added a very elaborated note, I restrict that a bit more as the many notes I write build themself up and pity few has the courage to read it all, so I strip mostly to a guidence personal view and if usefull only a link.
A fine sober enjoyable shot, different from my target of people. That doesn' mean I can appreciate other approaches a lot too. Well done.
Henk

pboehringer (770) 2006-11-03 0:51

Perfect shot, you are starting to outdo yourself with your shots. These two pots gives an awsome contrast to the ohterwise very white scenery. The blue sky is also a perfect additional feature to this shot. I'm an absolute freak for polarizing filter and I think it would be right here by enhancing even more the blue sky.
Best Regards, Peter

bostankorkulugu (33518) 2006-11-03 9:45

great white balance and light control jose...beautiful composition... looks like mykonos :) those urns leaning against the wall are superb... congrats.
korkut

zeca (20026) 2006-11-05 10:42

Olá José!
Boa composição, com ótimas cores e nitidez perfeita. Gosto do conceito minimalista, tanto nas formas como nas cores!
abraço,
Zeca

fanch (0) 2006-11-05 17:11

Ouch , what a note !
About picture :
Neat , and clear , and pure , and bright , and ...
Very good job !

Amicalement ,

sebcz (2345) 2006-11-06 3:25

Hi Jose!
I love this image. All those pure white structures and repeated pots, plus a dark blue sky.
Superb.
Seb

Yar (795) 2006-11-24 15:43

hi Jose, it's a very interesting story, thank you. nice colours and composition

pippo (588) 2006-11-28 16:17

hi jose,
really nice picture,
good white and compo.
ciao
pippo

sadeik (3159) 2006-12-26 10:11

This is excellant composition and really crisp.
The clean white with the earthern ware vases and small areas of black are just perfect, the colours complementing each other, though I should have liked the sky a nicer blue. You'll have to have a word with god next time, his colour choice here was not so good.

Simon

tatadalou (818) 2007-01-05 13:35

Hi Jose,
Great picture. Pure lines, few colours and well placed potteries that provides a little touch of warm colours. Colours are partuclarly well complementaries.
I never went to Djerba, but it seems to have an architecture as interesting as other parts of Tunisia.
Thanks a lot for your very instructive note?
Delphine

Charo (31665) 2007-03-06 5:13

Hola Jose
Estuve echando un vistazo a tus fotos de Tunez y no sabía con cual quedarme, son estupendas, asi que al final me decidí por esta, por su composición y por su luz y color, es fantástica, esas tinajas manchando el blanco inmaculado...
Bravo!!!
Saludos cordiales
Charo

Mondaychild (1513) 2007-03-13 5:19

Hi Jose,

this looks like a shot from another world ... the composition is simple and minimalistic - but the colors really touch me. They fit this photo very well.

batalay (20836) 2007-03-29 6:51

Hello José,

I have no green smileys left, but this photo that came up among your random photos cannot go unrewarded by me -- a photo from August 2005, about the same time that I climbed the Leaning Tower. This photo of a corner of Guellala Museum, featuring the terracota amphoras leaning against the brilliant white walls of the terrace — very nice composition, a light situation difficult to handle (but here handled very well) — the variegated deep blue of the sky all work in concert. Of course, the apperture triggering off the white walls, has closed up to the point where the sky is deeper blue than reality presents. I wonder how it would be to decrease the contrast somewhat, but of course this is also the way the pupil in our eyes behave. Finally, a first rate note!
Warm regards,

Bulent

xuaxo (5703) 2007-06-16 13:37

Olá José,
Confesso que não li a nota toda, tão longa. Mas gostei do que li.
Quanto à foto gosto muito da sua simplicidade de cores e elementos.
F