Seeing large.

Freshly back from my trip to Paris in September 1974 my street vision was honed. I had long enjoyed the characterful faces of the many street vendors of daily papers and set about the task, walking from Charing Cross along Knightsbridge to Earls Court. As pixel peeking attests – as do the headlines – all were taken on one day, September 24, 1974. These are mostly sequential images. Waste of film was simply not a concept.

Leica M3, 35mm Summaron, TriX, ‘scanned’ with a Nikon D800.

One, two, three.

In the Tuileries Garden, September, 1974.

It’s not that I knew the toddler would fall over, but I knew something would happen.

One.

Two.

Three.

Leica M3, 35mm Summaron, TriX, ‘scanned’ with the Nikon D800.

As good as museums get.

One of the four great art museums in the western hemisphere (The National Gallery – London, The Uffizi – Florence, The Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York being the others) it’s often said you could visit The Louvre in Paris daily for a year and still only experience a fraction of what it has to offer. Housed in a magnificent palace, visiting The Louvre is an essential destination on any tour of the world’s greatest art and sculpture collections.

First, it’s essential to arrive by Metro at The Louvre stop, as the station is decorated with glass encased sculpures. The prevailing memory I have, after buying my ticket, is the scent of oil paint, for the Louvre was full of copyists seeking to improve their skills.

The beautiful cobbled yard in the last image was destroyed in 1989 by an execrable excrescence known as The Pyramid, designed by I. M. Pei, an architect not usually known for bad taste, as his JFK Library in Boston and East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. attest. Quite how this monstrosity is meant to fit in with the French Renaissance style of the museum continues to defeat understanding.

All taken on a Leica M3, 35mm Summaron and 90mm Elmar lenses on TriX, ‘scanned’ on a Nikon D800.

The most perfect urban space.

The Tuileries Gardens front the Louvre Museum and since my first visit to Paris in September, 1974 I can only think of this magical place as the most perfect urban environment in the western world.

By the time of my visit you could say I had been preparing for this moment for a decade, a decade which saw me discover French culture, Henri Cartier-Bresson, French art and fashion. Add the fact that I had read Proust’s 12 tome volume of manners and society not once but twice and the equally important fact that my three years with the Leica M3 now saw it as an invisible extension of my eye, then I was well and truly ready to capture this special setting. For sheer beauty and gentleness I have yet to improve on these.

Patisserie.

A lemonade on a warm day.

A perfect place to catch up on the news.

Sculptures abound.

The children in the First Arondissement are well dressed.

A setting for contemplation ….

…. companionship ….

…. and reflection.

The Orangerie houses Monet’s water lillies. I was
so shattered by the work and its presentation in an oval
room that I quite forgot to take pictures!

Perfection. No other park compares.

A literary nation, the French own more books per person than any other.

This man was renting sail boats for children to play with
on the big pond. It’s dusk and he is taking his charges home.

Leica M3, 35mm Summaron and 90mm Elmar, TriX, negatives ‘scanned’ with a Nikon D800.

Wrought iron beauty.

September, 1974 saw my first visit to Paris, and the obligatory first stop was at the Eiffel Tower.

Leica M3, 35mm Summaron, TriX, ‘scanned’ with the Nikon D800.