This photograph book put a smile on my face, reminding me of the episode in the Irish TV series Father Ted in which Ted utilises toy cows trying to exThis photograph book put a smile on my face, reminding me of the episode in the Irish TV series Father Ted in which Ted utilises toy cows trying to explain to Father Dougal how to get a grip on perspective (these cows are small, the ones out there are far away). Shrinking giant things into tiny somethings has a comical and endearing effect, infusing images with a certain droll playfulness, innocence and ingenuity.
Antwerp resized is a photo project in which pictures of Antwerp, taken with a Tilt-Shift lens from heights (rooftops, lifting platforms, cranes) give the impression of looking at a miniature world – presenting a look at the big city from a bird’s eye view. The on-looker sees a circus tent as if it is a Playmobil prop, the perspective renders roads, buildings, traffic and people unreal, also because familiar objects and sights lose their sharpness, being blurred.
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As a person living in a small provincial town near to Antwerp (likely the proverbial carpark (=everyone not living in Antwerp?), I was slightly amused by the irony in this peculiar view on the city, seeing this town with its – not entirely undeserved - reputation of a certain sense of superiority and big-headedness reduced to this small size - even smaller than Mini-Europe, literally putting it into perspective in a playful way. It’s easy to sympathize with the photographer's view, acknowledging the relative importance of any human endeavour. I can imagine the photographer’s excitement and fun in the process of covering his hometown from above and the daredevil feats he probably needed to perform to obtain his photographs (he also covered Belgium, New York and Amsterdam in the similar format). Nonetheless, while I was looking at some work of the American photographer Gregory Crewdson – also taken from cranes – last week, it struck me that Jasper Léonard's resized Antwerp does not really transcend the gimmick, missing the enigmatic and mysterious touch that intrigued me in Crewdson’s storytelling photography. The rather chauvinist commentary texts (on the zoo, the Antwerp station, the City Hall) struck me as rather banal and superfluous....more
There is always something luminous in the face of a person in the act of reading. (Paul Theroux, from the introduction)
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When I started browsiThere is always something luminous in the face of a person in the act of reading. (Paul Theroux, from the introduction)
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When I started browsing through this book with photographs from people caught in the act of reading at the local library, it struck me as a marvellous counterpart in colour of the gorgeous black and white photographs of readers from the Hungarian photographer André Kertész, collected in his book On Reading(1971) which a friend brought to my attention some years ago. Reading on, it made me smile that Steve McCurry qualifies his own collection as his homage to André Kertész - “his talent, his influence, and his genius”.
Picturing people over the world absorbed in books, comics, newspapers, study material, Steve McCurry evokes what humankind unites by showing what readers have in common, hooked they all are to the magic spell of the written or printed word, regardless of age, culture or place.
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The introduction by Paul Theroux failed to warm me. Looking at other readers reading however enabled this devoted reader to thankfully forget about these cold and rainy April days for a moment. Even if photography in colour usually speaks less to me than photography in black and white, many of these photographs impressed me with their magnificent composition, their luminosity and opulent, intense colour palette, having a painterly quality.
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The photographs reminded me of a picture of a man sitting in front of a temple reading the newspaper, that I am keeping in a box with pictures of long bygone days, taken in Kathmandu (or Bhaktapur, or Patan? I don’t remember anymore) by my first spouse who dreamt about working as a photographer himself and to whom Steve McCurry’s photographic portrait Afghan Girl from 1984 was a beacon of inspiration, although he mostly chose to shoot photographs in black and white.
I don't photograph life as it is, but life as I would like it to be. — Robert Doisneau
For someone who is in love with Paris, this collection of 560I don't photograph life as it is, but life as I would like it to be. — Robert Doisneau
For someone who is in love with Paris, this collection of 560 photographs of the French photographer Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) is an absolute treat.
While I mostly associate images of nocturnal Paris with the photography of Brassaï, Doisneau’s photographs add a matutinal perspective on the city, widening the scope to street scenes in broad daylight. His exploring and documenting of Paris in black and white is often cheerful, with an eye for humour and the comical, shimmering with joie de vivre, celebrating life, love (Cosy kiss, 1950) and the beauty of Paris.
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Thematically organised (Paris by surprise, Paris for Parisians (les Halles, everyday Parisians, a home for tenants, Paris-by –the-Seine) Paris in Upheaval (occupation, resistance, liberation, demonstrations), Paris at play (fairs, cabarets and nightclubs, society, fashion) Paris in concrete, the book offers enchanting vignettes from the multifarious facets everyday life in Paris, a couple of snapshots from children’s play, love, a couple of glamourous events and magnificent portraits.
Particularly with his choices on the human figure Doisneau illustrates breezingly the French national motto of Liberté, égalité, fraternité, juxtaposing casually portraits of ordinary Parisians next to photographs of personalities that might ring a bell with the reader (Charles de Gaulle, Vercors, Prévert, Francis Ponge, Raymond Queneau, Juliette Binoche, Orson Wells, Alberto Giacometti (1958), Picasso, Colette, some couturiers (Christian Lacroix, Jean-Paul Gaultier)
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A couple of favourites are gems of storytelling condensed in just one image, for instance the accordionist on the cover picture or the picture of Anita, who could one of those characters with a shady past one encounters so often in the cafés and bars described by Patrick Modiano.
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The photographs are accompanied by fragments from the personal notebooks of Doisneau and some of these witty comments made me smile, for instance when he recounts of loitering around and so coming late to work because he preferred to capture the poetry of a gracious moment, taking a snapshot from a street scene that he finds amusing, savouring the urban spectacle during his strolls:
“One morning I had an appointment with a clutch of advertising people who were preparing a campaign to launch new washbasins in polystyrene – or was it polyester?
As usual, I was late, and as I was crossing the Tuileries I was held up by a van marked ‘Gougeon: Fine Art Movers.’
Once I saw the statues by Maillol, the washbasins completely slipped by mind.
It must have been about that time that the advertising agency stopped returning my calls.”
[image] Venus gone bust, 1964
For half of a century I pounded the cobblestones, then asphalt, of Paris, wandering up and down the city. The few images that now rise to the surface of the flow of time, bobbing together like corks on a swirling stream, are those taken on time stolen from my employers. Breaking the rules strikes me as a vital activity, and I must say I enjoyed indulging in it. [image] Diagonal steps 1953
[image] The centaur town hall of the 6th arrondissement 1971
Charm needs to be fleeting, Doisneau reflects , but glancing through this wondrous collection, I am grateful for Doisneau’s art to stop and capture time in his photographs....more
In Met Parijse pen. Literaire omzwervingen wijdt Margot Dijkgraaf tien korte stukken aan Franse en Nederlandse schrijvers die minstens gedurende een bIn Met Parijse pen. Literaire omzwervingen wijdt Margot Dijkgraaf tien korte stukken aan Franse en Nederlandse schrijvers die minstens gedurende een bepaalde periode in hun leven een bijzondere band hebben gehad (of nog altijd hebben) met Parijs: Simone de Beauvoir Remco Campert, Virginie Despentes, Adriaan van Dis, Willem Frederik Hermans, Michel Houellebecq, Patrick Modiano, Nelleke Noordervliet, Leïla Slimani en Fred Vargas.
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Elk stuk wordt ingeleid met een plannetje waarop enkele relevante straten en plaatsen in Parijs zijn aangemerkt die in het leven van de auteur of voor de personages in diens werk een rol hebben gespeeld. De teksten wordt afgewisseld met talrijke paginagrote straat-en portretfoto’s in kleur en in zwart-wit van Bart Koetsier die eerder dan de overbekende plaatjes van monumenten en grandeur het levende Parijs tonen, soms groezelig, vol contrasten en op enkele uitzonderingen na (het Luxembourg, de klok van het Musée d’Orsay) zonder als dusdanig herkenbare Parijse plekken of bezienswaardigheden. Naarmate het boek vordert, komt de wisselwerking van de tekst met de vaak nachtelijke en rauwe foto’s van Bart Koetsier duidelijker uit de verf. Hij belicht liefde, feest en vrolijkheid maar ook de meer donkere kanten van het leven in de grootstad. Zijn beelden van armoede, eenzaamheid en dakloosheid lieten me niet onberoerd.
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Ook al waren niet alle stukken even sterk, de nuchtere en heldere schrijfstijl van Margot Dijkgraaf sprak me meer aan dan het naar mijn smaak ietwat hijgerige Parijs Retour enkele decennia geleden. Hopelijk kom ik er ooit nog eens toe haar Franstalige literatuur van nu dat al jaren stof staat te vergaren in de boekenkast te lezen. Misschien is het veelzeggend dat Dijkgraaf me er tot mijn eigen verrassing toe prikkelt om Fred Vargas te lezen nu ik in jaren geen thriller meer gelezen heb. Hoe dan ook las ik dankzij haar het verrukkelijke Au Pair van Willem Frederik Hermans en alleen al daarom was dit boek dubbel en dwars het lezen waard.
Al met al een behoorlijk onderhoudend en inspirerend boek. (***1/2)...more
How to capture ‘the whole world in one city’ that is the British capital? This coffee-table book makes a praiseworthy attempt by presenting monuments,How to capture ‘the whole world in one city’ that is the British capital? This coffee-table book makes a praiseworthy attempt by presenting monuments, markets, cathedrals, museums, parks, skyscrapers, street views, landmarks, phenomena like tea time or street art from the east to the west over the north and the south of London in about 300 nearly full page colour photographs (and a few panoramic ones). Each image comes with an informative commentary situating the subject of the picture and larding it with interesting facts on past and present. Even if somewhat overly lavishly sprinkled with superlatives (the largest, the oldest, the highest) to my taste, it was a lovely book to savour in the afterglow of a short stay in London last month (particularly because I only took a few snapshots like the ones below), leaving a taste for more, for perhaps further discovery in the future.
Every time I look down on this timeless town Whether blue or gray be her skies. Whether loud be her cheers or soft be her tears, More and morI love Paris
Every time I look down on this timeless town Whether blue or gray be her skies. Whether loud be her cheers or soft be her tears, More and more do I realize:
I love Paris in the springtime. I love Paris in the fall. I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles, I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles.
I love Paris every moment, Every moment of the year. I love Paris, why, oh why do I love Paris? Because my love is near. (Cole Porter)
Where words and maybe even music at times might feel inadequate to capture the particular magic of the city of Paris, a picture is worth a thousand words, and with regard to Paris this might be most true for images in black and white. The mystery, the ever changing light, the bustling street and café life, the medium of black and white photography and the city of Paris seem made for each other.
In the tradition of illustrious photographers of Paris like Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, André Kertész, Eugène Atget and Willy Ronis the French photographer Thierry Colin presents a collection of atmospheric photographs taken in Paris between 1982 and 2012. His strength lies not so much in the spontaneous seizure of portraits, but rather in picturing everyday life in the city and in zooming in on telling details while the contours of the monuments fading in the background evoke a dreamlike magnificence. Some choices struck me as rather stereotypical romantic (couple at the Fontaine Médicis in the Jardin de Luxembourg, the artists at the Place du Tertre), still plenty of them are simply stunning and finely composed, capturing Paris by night, gardens and squares, the so photogenic cemeteries, pigeons, bridges and quais, having a fine eye for the sense of the changing seasons, mist and snow. A lovely picture book with an introduction by the photographer in English, French and Dutch (of which the English and Dutch texts in this copy I found in a second hand bookshop were plagued by printing errors).
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