I learnt photography from my late father – or rather my father was the one who inspired me to dabble in it as a hobby. My earliest recollections during childhood are the scintillating black-and-white photographs he used to take of the temples in South India with his German Camera- yes those were the days of film! And we used to tag along with him and travel to the different temple towns – perhaps one more reason for my wander-lust to this day! It also seems to have seeped into my subconscious to create this fascination with design, especially design of buildings and Architecture. And he was a die-hard German fan – he worked for a German Company (Heidelberg), he swore by his German camera and he loved all things German – the cities, the churches, et al.

And hence my first blog post is sort of a memorial tribute to him as well – no it is not about temples, but yes if a church is a temple (which I think it is) then it is about temples. Needless to mention it is about photography and about Art and Architecture. And yes it has a German connection as well!

My first trip to Germany left me spell bound. The highlight for me was the time I spent no not in Heidelberg but at Cologne. And the Cologne Cathedral with its amazing stained glass paintings captivated and inspired me to such an extent that I realized what my father must have gone through when he was photographing all those temples in South India – it was an inner spiritual experience that I find indescribable.

And hence here is my first blog post – a tribute to the long gone (and perhaps forgotten) artists of the Cologne Cathedral for their artistic skills, architecture, vision and design to build an edifice of such unparalleled beauty in perhaps the whole of Germany. And a note of thanks to my father for: inspiring me travel, my love of photography and instilling in me an appreciation of the beauty of art and design.

We start at the Grand Facade of the Cathedral:

And on to the World Class Stained Glass Paintings:

The Birth of Christ: Madonna and the Child

A detail of one of the mosaics:

A second Stained Glass painting depicts this epic scene:

And a third In the Here-After:

Christ and his disciples as depicted below:

And three complete panels to get the grand picture:

And those who nurtured the Cathedral over centuries haven’t been forgotten either!