In addition to the moody feel to this image, I really am attracted to the wonderful composition of shapes and repetition. It's really a beautiful photograph!
I agree with Ray on this one, Bailey. Between the two of you, you've made some of the most mysterious black and white images I've seen on this site. Black and white is an abstracting medium unto itself. It strips a photo down to its essentials, and allows you to look into its core. That's what this staircase does for us. It is a very simple image, a series of light and dark panes that curve up and through the image, moving from the shadows into the light. I read this picture as a metaphor for the glory that was France. Versailles was its most brilliant stage -- on these steps once walked its Kings and Queens. The glow at the top reminds us of their supposed wisdom, power, and perhaps even divinity -- a Royal presence, now gone forever. Did you have such thoughts when you made it? I guess that's part of the mystery.
