Merzan, the Destiny of an Artist

by Marc Blake

  As Merzan is snapping away, his images are displayed in his mind’s eye overlapping in stacks one image over another. He’s having his own personal slide show. Photography has completely absorbed his creative attention. We can only imagine what cool photos he has captured so far. His point of view and search for the light has come to life with his own personal renaissance. At least one would think so to experience what he was experiencing.

  However, though we’d expect Merzan’s photos to be engaging, it is equally obvious that Merzan himself becomes unpleased with his own camera work. Even in light of all the creative momentum that is occurring, Merzan is feeling some unexplained personal disappointment.

  Something is missing. Merzan’s feels emptiness with his creative efforts.

  Merzan’s thinks to himself, “I can not draw. I can not take pictures.”

  As certain as we’d expect it has, Merzan’s new found artistic discoveries through photography have not found its way into his creative heart.

  Merzan looks at the image counter on the camera and notices that only a few remaining frames are left on his second roll of film. Merzan gives up. He puts the camera off to the side of his body and heads back to his school. He sees a Paris Metro station up ahead.

  After walking a short distance toward the Metro in the late afternoon sun, he passes a group of cute flirtatious French teenagers. Merzan is disinterested in the group of girls but they are not disinterested in him. They can’t avoid stopping this handsome and intriguing young man with a camera. They surround him to question the outwardly noticeable serious look on his face.

  One after another, the girls speak to him. Even teasing him in their girlish ways they say, “Bonsoir! How can a perfect Parisian afternoon cause so much grief for a handsome young Frenchman?”

  They close in on him even more. One girl touches his face to try to sculpt a smile from his frown.

  They continue to try to engage him in conversation.

  “You are not from Paris.”

  One girl looks down and says, “Those are the shoes of a country boy. He must be a tourist. Are you a tourist? He has a camera. Take my photograph.” “Mine too,” says another young girl.” Another, “Take mine as well.”

  They continue to coax him into taking photographs.

  Merzan, unable to escape their playful behavior and being a friendly person by nature, agrees to accommodate them.

  While taking these last few photographs you can sense Merzan seeing a story in each girl’s face. He captures their expression by isolating an intimate look in their eyes.

  This time the photographs are more interesting to Merzan. He is sensing that each photo has a quality about it. The idea of being a photographer gets another shot in his artistic heart. Adding to his creative curiosity, he make a bit of a comparison of what you would find in the work of a great master’s painting with what he is now trying to achieve with a camera. Merzan is thinking carefully and calculatingly while he composes the last few frames.

  “Every photograph will tell its own story. There must be purpose for every shape and color. Stopping action creates movement. Philippe told me I must learn to see the light. The school secretary told me the same thing. I feel compelled to take a journey into the shadows.”

  The last two photographs he takes consume him. Merzan knows that he can use the amazing shadows from nearby objects falling on the teenage girls’ faces to his advantage. He sees how their eyes are lit by the late afternoon sun and glowing while shadows help create a contrasting dramatic visual story. Merzan feels pleased with this series of images.

  13 Treasures of the Human Spirit

  The next morning, Merzan woke up excited about seeing the results of his photography work. Anxiously, he heads to the camera shop to learn how to develop his exposed rolls of film. When he arrives at the front window of the shop, as always, he stops to eyeball that Rolleiflex camera. Merzan lets out a wanting sigh then he enters the shop.

  Merzan walks through the front door and looks up at the poster of the Eiffel Tower. As much as he wants to see his photographs, he thinks to himself what a disaster most of his image-making efforts may be from his previous afternoon’s work. None the less, his curiosity gets the best of him and he’s ready to see about developing the film.

  Philippe greets him, “Merzan, young artiste. Are you ready to go into the lab?”

  “Oui Philippe, I have taken many photographs. I don’t know what to expect. “Well, c’set la vie.” Merzan sets two canisters of exposed 35mm film onto the counter. “I’m am ready. What do we do now?”

  Philippe tells Merzan to bring the film into the darkroom explaining that, “in a short time we are going to see if your photography is as good as your drawing.”

  He pushes Merzan, poking fun of his self-stated inability to draw.

  Merzan reiterates, “But I can not draw!”

  Philippe mocks Merzan, “But I can not draw... But I can not draw.”

  Philippe tells Merzan, “Ah, un moment,” then puts a “Back Soon” sign on the shop door and locks it. They both enter the darkroom, Philippe closing the door to the lab behind them.

  Philippe instructs Merzan, “I hope you have learned to see the light. Now, you must learn to see the dark.”

  Merzan is never quite sure what new telling secret information is coming from the lips of Philippe.

  “The dark?” Merzan asks!

  Instructions continue, “This is the developer for the film. The temperature must be exactly 20˚C. Once we load the film into this reel, we can close it into this light tight container. We must load the film in complete darkness so we do not expose it.”

  Merzan catches on.

  “I see. Once the film is closed up in the container, we can add the chemicals through this opening on the top, no?”

  Philippe agrees, “Exactly! So, we will turn off the light now and then open the film canisters with this opener...”

  The conversation continues while the lights are turned off and the two of them go through the necessary steps loading the film onto the developer reels. Now secured in the container, the lights are turned back on.

  Philippe goes through the various steps of developing film and ends with, “Now the final chemical clears the film and sets the image permanently. This has fixed the particles of silver halide that make up your images, so we rinse the film in water for 15 minutes next. Go ahead Merzan, pour out the fixer. Pour it back into this container, then start the water rinse. Soon you will be able to see your images.”

  Philippe opens the darkroom door just in time to hear an aggressive knocking and what sounded to him like girlish giggling come from outside the shop door.

  Philippe calls out, “Un moment! I am coming. Un moment! I am here. What is all this?”

  He opens the door and looks at a group of teenage girls. Though Philippe does not know this, they are the girls Merzan photographed from the day before. They barge their way into the shop without any scruples.

  Philippe is as entertain as he is surprised by their completely aggressive behavior.

  “Well, young ladies what is the urgency? Welcome! What can I do for you?”

  The girls are gathered, giggling, silly, playful, flirtatious, and take turns speaking, “Is this Merzan’s camera shop monsieur? We are here for Merzan monsieur. He has invited us to come see our photographs monsieur. Where is Merzan monsieur?”

  Merzan is caught by surprise, wishing he was NOT hearing what he’s certain IS hearing! What the girls are saying is not quite the truth and not actually what Merzan told them the afternoon before.

  “Well, young ladies,” Philippe has decided to play along with the contrived story he’s hearing. “Oui! You are in the shop of the the famous artiste de la photographie, Merzan L’Granaré.”

  The girls are tickled, “… he, he, he, he,” and blushing, “… uh, ha, ha.”

  Philippe tries to calm the chaos. He thinks that may be a challenging task, but wants to make sense out of whatever is going
on with these crazy acting girls.

  “Now, slowly this time, what can I do for you? WAIT! S’il vous plaît, young ladies, one at a time.”

  He grabs one girl politely by the shoulders to gain some control of their collective silly, squirming behavior. Philippe attempts to focus in on her version of the story.

  One girl, only, composing herself contrastingly calmly explains, “Merci monsieur. We were not far from the Champs-Élysées when Merzan...”

  Merzan has peaked out of the darkroom (not to be seen) and sees his group of teenage photographic subjects. Merzan reacts to what sounds like a very twisted version of what had actually happened and what is now being told – according to the girls.

  “... Well, Merzan told us that if we pose for him he will see that we are given copies of the photographs. He told us that one day we will be famous models ...”

  Another girl adds to the story, “... and our faces will be on every fashion magazine.”

  The girl's excitement level begins building chaotically again.

  Philippe supports what he’s hearing them say when he asks, “... and all you need to do is come to his camera shop?”

  They react, “Exactement, monsieur. Now...”

  One girl becomes more controlling of the situation than Philippe. She snaps her fingers demanding immediate satisfaction to her request.

  “... won’t you call your employer to the front s’il vous plaît?”

  Philippe is set back by her demand. Even so, he is enjoying the misinformation and continues to play along.

  Philippe calls out, “Merzan, monsieur, Monsieur Merzan.”

  Merzan walks in to the main showroom area of the camera shop unsure of what is about to happen. The girls react with additional giggles and squirms.

  Philippe looks at Merzan and with an over-acted dramatization says, “Might I leave early today monsieur? I do have THAT appointment I spoke with you about.”

  Merzan looks at him, wrinkles his face and is speechless.

  The girls gang up on Merzan.

  “Hello Merzan, Hi Merzan, Merzan! Bonjour Merzan. Do you have our photographs Merzan? Are we beautiful?”

  They surround him, acting like groupies.

  Merzan explains that the film is ready but it must dry before prints can be made.

  Merzan looks up at the clock.

  Merzan anxiously informs everyone that he must get back to school.

  “Philippe will you excuse me?”

  “Of course Merzan. Take your camera. I will see you again soon young artiste!”

  Merzan grabs his camera and scurries out the door mainly wanting to escape the girls. It’s pointless however and they chase after him. Whether this is Merzan’s camera shop or not is of no concern to the girls any longer.

  Outside the camera shop, now entirely in the view of the friendly neighborhood Merzan is briskly making his way down the street.

  Chasing him, “Merzan? Where do you go to school? That is not your shop? Do you attend the Sorbonne? I bet he’s a professor.”

  Merzan is trying to stay a step ahead. He passes the flower stand. Passes by the old woman who lives only a few doors down from the shop. This woman is always out sweeping her front porch and sidewalk.

  His eyes catch hers and she gives him a rather obvious “wink” to which Merzan reacts with a facial response that says, “Oh my! What am I to do? What is happening here?”

  14 An Artiste is Born

  In the camera shop, Philippe goes back into the darkroom. He pulls the film from water rinse, squeegees the strips and hangs them to dry. He begins a bit of clean up in the darkroom when the light from the open door shines through the hanging strips of film.

  Naturally, at this point of the story, there is no way it is going to be normal light hitting the film strips. Unnaturally, it’s a glowing light, a magical light that alerts Philippe to have a closer look. Something special must be going on!

  Philippe is attracted to the individual frames of the negative film strips. He picks up a brass ringed, wood handled magnifying glass and begins inspecting Merzan’s photographs close up.

  He takes an initial look, then adjusts things to get a better advantage. His face grows more serious than we’ve ever seen him before. It’s all business now!

  Philippe goes back to the shop door and puts a closed sign on the door, lowers the front shade and locks the door from the inside. He turns out the main lights of the shop’s interior.

  A short time later with the film now dried, Philippe begins making photographic enlargements. Almost frantically, one after another, after another he can’t print them fast enough to satisfy his curiosity and intrigue. The momentum of his output increases with each print. He can’t wait to see the next, and the next, and the next.

  The shop phone rings and he lifts it off the hook. Nothing must disturb him. The printmaking work has become far too important.

  The clock advances hour by hour and Philippe can’t stop producing prints from Merzan’s photographs.

  Finally, with so many photos printed, some half dry, some hanging wet, some in a stack, some in the water rinse tray, Philippe gets to the final series of about six or eight frames.

  These contain Merzan’s photographs of the girls.

  He prints the first, a close up with one of the teenage girl’s eyes filling most of the frame. The background is perfectly out of focus showing us just enough information to establish a familiar Parisian location. The sun is beaming in from the sides with light igniting the young girls eyes. Merzan has captured such powerful longing in her expression that it has a quality and emotion like a great work of art.

  Philippe slips into a small, momentary dream of his wife, in the hospital, during child birth. Somehow the eyes in the photograph become the eyes of his wife fighting for her life and the life of their “soon to be born” son.

  Philippe’s eyes begins welling up.

  The power of the photographic image causes Philippe to bursts into tears. Crying openly, tears fall onto the photo. Overwhelmed with emotion, Philippe inadvertently crushes the photograph in his hands. Merzan’s photographic art moved Philippe to feel a very long-hidden deep pain.

  Philippe regains composure and spans the body of work now consuming the darkroom.

  It has become clear to Philippe, based on his overall reaction to the series of work, that Merzan has a unique, demanding artistic quality and skill. Philippe just stands there in the darkroom trying to image where all this might lead.

  15 A Victim of Responsibility

  Back at school, Merzan is standing off to the side watching an assembly. One of the teachers is awkwardly using a camera to try to document the event. Merzan senses that the teacher’s efforts to capture the moment are not that good. Imagining that he is now an expert with his camera Merzan lifts his camera to his eye and pretends to photographically cover the activities. Even though he has no film loaded, he murmurs to himself, “Click, click. Click click.”

  The School Secretary notices Merzan. She whispers something into the Headmaster’s ear.

  The two of them look at each other and in unison confirm their thoughts. Their positive expressions, along with the mutual nods of their head acknowledge that they are in agreement with the potential of their new discovery.

  The assembly ends.

  16 Fate Plays Another Card

  It’s nighttime in Mo’ore’a. Temaru is speaking with his wife and daughter inside their home. Directing his attention to his daughter he says, “Matahina. Amura and I have spoken about sending a delegation to Paris as part of a cultural exchange. Through this effort we will encourage tourism and help the economy on our island.”

  Matahina asks, “Father, can I go to Paris with this delegation? Can I father?”

  She’s begging and excited at the idea, “Can I? Please?”

  Élise is uninformed about such ideas and questions her husband on this new topic, “Temaru?”

  Temaru continues, “Matahina, I do not wish to send a
delegation.”

  Matahina drops her head, instantly saddened. She is outwardly disappointed, even a little angered.

  Temaru goes on to add, “Matahina, I have explained to Amura that I wish to send only the Princess of Mo’ore’a.”

  Élise is shocked by what she hears. “Temaru?”

  Matahina, still sad, suddenly realizes this means her!

  “Father are you saying that you will send me to Paris?”

  He only will add, “I’m saying that Amura knows of this plan and he agrees with the strategy. I have not spoken with your mother...”

  Élise still shocked, “Temaru? ... Since when do you speak to me of Island business?”

  Temaru is sarcastic, but defeated when he replies, “When does any Island business get settled without your blessing Eeva?”

  Élise acts testy, “Temaru!”

  Matahina imitates her mother, “Temaru!”

  Eeva and Temaru roll their eyes trying to hide smiles.

  Eeva begins composing herself from the shocking new information. She starts putting this into perspective.

  Élise begins orating in her familiar analytic manner, “We understand that the activities of the Princess of Mo’ore’a can be Island business, but the activities of our daughter, Matahina, is our business. But our daughter is the Princess of Mo’ore’a... and therefore...”

  Matahina interrupts, begging, “Do I have anything to say about this...”

  Matahina steps back and into a sweeping curtsy. With attitude, she bows to them both in a ceremonial gesture and completes her question, “... your Majesties?”