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Paris et moi / Paris and me

  • Paris et Moi
    Paris and me
    A selection of black and white images 
  • En Anglais, suivi du texte français .In English ,followed by French text.

    I am French and lived and worked in Paris from 1981 to 2005. I have very strong ties to Paris, the strongest of all being my son and also many true friends, the sort you keep to your death. So although I live and work in the UK , I pop across to Paris at least once or twice a year.I took up photography ( darkroom and all ) around 1983 I think ? The little dog peeing on the statue is my first image of Paris. Aside from that one, the photos here follow no particular order.A few of the people portrayed are close to me

    I moved to the UK with very few possessions, including my darkroom that I went on to sell to make the switch to digital. I scan my negatives to edit them digitally. I edit them and my digital files with care but sometimes am content to be sketchy. As for dust on negatives, I don't have access to a drum scanner nor do I wet mount my negatives. I spot them to a point when they are for the web and only finish spotting when getting ready to print.My plan is to look into photographing my negatives as an alternative to scanning them.
    Not all the photos here are on my website . And not all the photos on my website are here. I also work in colour with the same" happy to experiment" approach, for my personal work,that I have for black and white . Most times, I stay within a classic palette but I do like to wander from it now and again. Anyway, only black and white here.
    If you wish to visite my site that is for now an odd place because it features my commercial wedding work along with my very personal work. http://www.frogfoto.com/section609024.html will take you straight to the personal work.
    I hope you like Paris or the idea of Paris, and that at least a photo here will bring back a memory of it or make you want to go there.
    I'd like also to extend a special thanks to the Linkedin groups,"Digital Black and White Photography", " Art Photography " and "Photographing France" for accepting my membership.

    Je suis français et j'ai vécu et travaillé à Paris de 1981 à 2005. J'ai des liens très forts avec Paris, le plus solide de tous étant mon fils et aussi, de nombreux véritables amis, du genre qu'on garde jusqu'à la mort. Bien que je vive au Royaume Uni, Je fais un saut à Paris une ou deux fois par an.J'ai commencé à pratiquer la photo ( labo noir et blanc et tout) aux alentours de 1983...je crois ?
    Le petit chien qui pisse sur la statue est ma première photo de Paris. A part celle-ci, les autres photos ne sont pas présentées dans un ordre particulier. Parmi les personnes sur les photos, certaines sont très proches de moi.
    Je suis venu au RU avec très peu d'affaires, dont mon labo photo que j'ai vendu pour financer mon matériel numérique. Je scanne mes négatifs pour les travailler numériquement. Je les travaille, ainsi que les négatifs/fichiers numériques, avec soins mais me contente parfois de résultats esquissés. Et pour ce qui est de la poussière sur les négatifs, je n'ai pas accès à un scanner à tambour ni ne les monte mouillées .Je repique les poussières jusqu'à un certain point quand les photos sont destinées au WEB et plus méthodiquement lorsque je me décide enfin à les imprimer. Mon projet c'est d'explorer la possibilité de photographier les négatifs plutôt que de les scanner.
    Pas toutes les photos ici se trouvent sur mon site. Et pas toutes les photos de mon site se trouvent ici. Je travaille aussi en couleur avec l'approche" toujours content d'experimenter" que j'ai pour mon travail personnel. Le plus souvent, je reste dans une palette classique mais j'aime bien m'en eloigner de temps à autre. De toute façon, ici il n'y a que du noir et blanc.

    Si vous souhaitez visiter mon site, qui st un peu un endroit étrange car mon travail de photographe de mariage figure à côté de mon travail très personnel. http://www.frogfoto.com/section609024.html vous conduira directement à une des pages perso.

    J'espère que vous aimez Paris ou l'idée de Paris et qu'au moins une des  photos ici vous en rappelle un souvenir ou vous donne envie de vous y rendre.

    Je voudrais également remercier les groupes Linkedin " Digital Black and White Photography " , "Art Photography " et " Photographing France " de m'avoir accepté comme membre.
  • Jardin des Tuileries , early eighties  . 
  • Jardin des Tuileries, around 2010, temporary exhib
  • Jardin des Tuileries, modern walk through sculpture. Mid 80s ? I had the pleasure of walking through this sculpture again in January 2009 ...
  • Pont  des Arts
  • Rue de Rivoli 2010 ?
  • Tuileries , summer 2005. The last roll of film I processed myself...
  • Tuileries again. Summer 2009 I think. Digital
  • Tuileries 2005, last roll of film.
  • François, Tuileries on 35mm film. Mid 80s
  •  near Strasbourg St-Denis, film early 80s
  • Petit Palais 2010 ? Digital
  • Food market, just near Barbès. Taken with a little Minox on "black and white  colour processed film"
  • And next two images, Tuileries Pique-Nique, 2009 digital.  I rarely take street photos with a telephoto lens and made myself very visible so as not to steal these images. There's a square colour one in this series on my site in the gallery called square.
  • Pont de Tolbiac, film early 80s. This bridge no longer exists.
  • Lovely man allowed me to snap his portrait, film early 80s. I rarely ask for such a favour.
  • Lovely lady, allowed me to snap her portrait.
  • Joseph, Jardin du Luxembourg early 80s
  • Jardin du Luxembourg, early 80s
  • Notre Dame bien sûr ! 2009 Digital .
  • Jardin du Palais Royal, Max 1993 , roll fim.
  • Max, Jardin du Palais Royal
  • Les Halles 2009
  • Les Halles 2009
  • Place Vendôme 2009
  • Open air swimming pool, rue david d'angers. Roll film, early 90s
  • Parc André Citroën , 2009
  • Parc André Citroën, mid 90s roll film.
  • Fontaine Statue de Molière  2009 digital
  • Bercy 2012 dgital ( fuji x100 )
  • Métro St-Michel 2009
  • Paris Plage 2008
  • Beaubourg, digital
  • Jackie, Pont Neuf , Digital with flash.
  • Max, reclaims Jeanne d'Arc as a symbol of Liberté , Egalité, Fraternité. 2009
  • Cour carrée du Louvre, January 2012. As this group of young men walked by me, one of them stated that all the photos of Paris had already been taken and that all of the photographers snapping away in the Cour  were wasting their time. Since he said it to be heard I chased after them and begged them to help me make an original picture by posing for me. A mixture of charm and challenge won them over for a brief instant. They have never gotten in touch. Speaking French can come in handy...
  • La Bibliothèque Nationale. I'd never had a wander around it till the need to kill a few hours in the neighbourhood arose.On this trip I Ihad restricted my self to y little fixed lens fuji. I don't have proper tilt and shift lenses for my DSLR but architecture is something that I am interested in....
  • Bibliothèque Nationale, no comment...fuji x100
    I took many in my walk around the BNF...I'll make a presentation of it's own.
  • Max ,Bercy, Ministère des Finances..2012; I have a colour image of this on my site with Max looking up towards the light that I like a lot better. 
  • Olivier, place Vendôme. 2009 digital. A friend who needed a few images for  his portfolio.
  • Jackie, film 2005
  • Colonnes de Buren, digital , deformed in Photoshop.  2010 ?
  • Place de la nation, May 2002. Peaceful demonstration to bar the way to the extreme right candidate in the second round of the presidential election. Actually taken on colour film and very badly processed.When I am in the mood , I play around with these negatives...a few colour interpretations in my Gallery called "Tall " and some black and white ones in my Gallery called large.As said in my intro, I'm not obsessed with precise rendering as long as I feel it works for and not against the image. I don't always get it right ...