How High is High?

Cathedral Sainte Cecile, Albi, France

How high is high? And, when you are in tight quarters, how do you photograph it? Cathedral Ste. Cecile, in Albi, an hour’s train ride north of Toulouse, presents one of those photographic problems. I had read about this Cathedral, built on the site of the original Catholic Church and intended to tower above the town and impress the populace with the might of the new regime. Now surrounded by shops and restaurants, a 13th century group of modernized apartments, and the Musee Toulouse Lautrec, getting an angle to show the whole structure from the town center was impossible.  I had to walk a mile to the Tarn River to get that shot.

For the moment, though, we were waiting the final few minutes for the Cathedral to open after the two-hour lunch break so we could get inside. The Cathedral opened to the public for only a short period of time and the number allowed in at one time was limited, so I didn’t want to risk a walk to the river and back before getting inside. Since I was stuck with the circumstances at hand, I decided to show the height by standing at the base of the 225′ bell tower and shooting up. Even then I couldn’t get both the base and the top in the frame, so I opted for the top, and caught the top of the tree on one side and the beginning of the transept on the other to give perspective to the height. The angle of the building distorted slightly, which gave the shot a dynamic feel and proved that the Cathedral truly reached for the sky.
I did get my shot from the Tarn River, as well as photographs of the interior.