Another abstract, aiming to construct in a contradiction (I am trying very hard not to call it a supposition) that recalls both direct and inverse characteristics from the previous post. And a slightly more airy view. Leica M7 with ZM 1.5/50 on Ilford HP5+, processed in Photoshop by merging two images.
The Jardin des Plantes and Grande Galerie de l’Évolution, Paris. Inside, the gallery of evolution is quite amazing, with an astonishing building that combines fantastic colour lighting, sound effects (at one point simulating a thunderstorm), and a vast historical collection of stuffed animals:
Amazing wooden decking and some very sharp towers. The architecture is fascinating as it somehow gives the impression of an immense open space, while hiding large sections of the library under your feet. As an aside, maintaining all the wood here in Paris’ notoriously damp climate must be challenging. Shot with the M7 and 50mm on Ilford HP5+ 35mm film and processed in HC110 1+63 (“H”) for 8:30 at 24c. The Zeiss C-Sonnar is a great general purpose lens, but it has a bit too much distortion for these kind of straight-line […]
Wood and steel bridge, leading to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. Ok, so it is not quite deserted enough for the title (and neither is it London), but it does seem as if the photo-stream has been invaded. Paris has lots of opportunities for these kinds of near-symmetric images, that work well in square format and which are easy to shoot with a phone:
Building with Flare, Paris. And a time traveling title from the future. The image quality from the phone camera is not all bad. Here, the limited dynamic range and the tendency of the lens to flare badly (at least compared to any other camera I have) are exploited to vainly try to add some interest to an otherwise humdrum architectural image. Unlike with film, WYSIWYG making it easier to work around the (massive) limitations of the phone camera’s sensor – which has very limited dynamic range.
Parisian architecture, viewed through an art installation alongside the Seine, Paris. The titles seem to be increasingly divergent from the subject matter, but as the sticker says:
The sofa of reasonable comfort at the Marché aux puces de la Porte de Vanves, Paris. An interesting flea market with a nice random collection of unusual and reasonably priced kick-knacks. We came away with some strangely warped records, some metal stamps and a bakelite camera (which if I can find some 620 spools may yet get to shoot again…).
I really really debated as to whether or not to include an explicit photograph of the tower in this series – but the chance to legitimately use the title was too good to pass up :-) It is very hard to figure out any way whatsoever to take an original photograph of the Eiffel Tower that has not been made a million times over – including this one. However, I was taken by the repetition of the basic shape of the tower from within its own structure – seen here looking up […]
Tourist snap of Notre Dame de Paris. I was disappointed that the buttresses on the cathedral didn’t actually fly. There are a few more pictures from inside the cathedral after the break – although not great, it was surprising how well the phone managed with the dark interior.
A loose corollary to the previous post, and a hint of some more architectural images still to come. Shot with the Instagram app and processed using the XPro filter, which helps give a sense of timelessness to this image.
Street photography with children has obvious ethical challenges and, much more so than with adults, we seem to be wary of people taking such pictures. Notions of censorship from both the general public and also from within implicitly colour what we choose to image. I spent quite a while photographing this installation (lots of concentrically rotating coloured glass, with people wandering around inside and out), and although no one troubled me I started to wonder if I was going to attract attention. Sometimes the censorship that we apply ourselves is the […]
Ad-hoc table and chairs with purple carpet under a bridge in Paris. This is something that I never thought that I would see in a major European city. I first encountered people living in make-shift tents and mini-houses under bridges in Kyoto. In Paris, it seemed that almost every bridge with space housed some temporary shelters, whether made from cardboard or actual tents:
If not the city of death, then surely the city of love! And possibly some monsters too. Some more slightly NSFW and poorly captioned images on this theme after the break. I think that at this point I was giving up trying to make quality pictures and just shooting anything that didn’t move. I was actually hoping to get some street photographs of people kissing, but I think the slight rain meant that there were no opportunities in the short time that we had.
Cheating somewhat, all the following Instagram/phone images this week were shot in Paris. I suspect that Paris has some kind of photographic distortion field that makes it impossible to take uninteresting pictures, even with a phone. This is something that should be easy to test… For reasons that are unclear, all these posts are named after Dr Who serials. City of Death was shot (partly) in Paris, and like the production of these images also featured a lot of fairly aimless running around the streets. I have already given up trying to use WordPress on the phone […]
Transient Eye 