Chancery Estate

Diary, Monday, December 7th, 1998:

Yesterday went with Raoul to Red Hills and Chancery Estate, photographing opulence: bhutu opulence. Took splendid photographs, which I hope will come out. What was interesting was the contradiction. Here are these gigantic, highly visible, very brash castles of centrifugal opulence set against the hill, painted white, bright with their elements of display and conspicuous waste and yet when we went to photograph them we were often stopped or dissuaded by guards or workers, or even the owners themselves. Why? What is the gap between the wish to photograph the image and the intention behind the image? And do not come to me with explanations of primitive magic. The contradiction is more straightforward and far more interesting than that.