Soul of Paris !

[anders]

When I walk in the streets of Paris with my camera and my photographic eye I almost always seem to cross phantoms - figures in the streets that are there but immediately seem to disappear after I have taken the photo. These figures carry, in my view, the soul of the city.
What is your impression, ? have I caught something in these three photos that speak to you too ??
Anders

[skipc]

Next thing you will be hangin in the street photography forums au Bresson...jf

[anders]

It is sure that Cartier-Bresson inspired many many to love Paris and taugth us better to "see" Paris, its streets, cafees, its people, its roofs and bridges, but he had as you know his very personal stile that few have copied with success. The photo of the two I could imaging as a Cartier-Bresson style of a photo whould be the one of Pont Neuf, in the middle, but then again the shadow passing the bridge in a hurry would have transformed itself into a kissing couple under the bridge to the rigth in the sunshine ! However, I would find less inspiration in such a photo, that I personally would believe I have seen before...maybe in a "Bresson-forum".
Anders

[raniday]

That's a very interesting concept, would probably evolve into a great coffee table book

[anders]

I have not got a coffee table to use for it ! What do you normally put on such a thing. Books that you read or books that you want other people to see that you have ?
Anders

[Kraellin]

i dont know an exact definition for a coffee table book, but what little i know of these is that they tend to be a larger format, mostly images, often photography, photo art, or art type content. they are usually done on glossy papers, very often hard cover and meant as something for someone else to look at.

and i agree, if you did up a coffee table book and called it 'The Soul of Paris', you might find yourself visiting a friend some time and see your book on their coffee table.

once again i find myself taking one of your images and doing it up as photo art. you do have a good eye. so, yes, this one speaks to me.

i also like the bridge one, but that one needs something... contrast....something. it's a nice shot, but that's what it is, a shot and by itself doesnt quite say as much to me. the image seems to be about form and angles and lighting. but by itself it conveys no other message than that.

i also have a bit of a problem with the blurry man image. i think i get what you're going for here, but again, it's a shot and doesnt quite make the statement that it might. in fact, you could even read that image as 'an older gentlemen, his mind fading (blurring), time coming at him (the cars) and there's nothing he can do to stop things'. but, that's reading a LOT of significance into the image. you want the image to portray and communicate a message, not the reader to have to inlay something into it. that can be a subtle distinction some times.

as is, i think the second and third images would work better in a collage or montage of paris. they just dont quite stand by themselves. but in a group they might well work. and i think that's what the comment about a coffee table book might be leaning towards also.

now,i do like the first one best. that one is also about form and contrast and lighting, but it's also about static and kinetic and says more to me. i like that you did that one in black and white. i also like that there is a soda cup just behind the walking figure, as if he had just dropped it in passing, apathetic to this spoiling the beauty he is passing by. so, this one speaks to me more.

my treatments of your building image dont take much of any of the above to heart. i just liked the form and contrast possibilities and played with that a bit. these again are not meant as critiques of your work. in fact, most of them probably destroy the message of your originals. i just liked the image and wanted to play

craig

edit: ya know, i do keep looking at that third image, the one of the man blurred, and it does have a haunted, sort of lost, sort of confused feel about it. here's an older guy, stuck in the middle of a lot of motion, feeling his age, feeling a bit confused and not quite being able to do much about it. so, it's apparently speaking more to me than i originally thought. i wonder how this would have been had you changed the depth of field and made the cars in focus but left the man blurred?

[anders]

Thanks Craig, I have been on travel. I have seen your comments. I'll come back to you with an answer hopefully tonigth.
Anders

[raniday]

What do you normally put on such a thing

. Yeah, what Craig said........

Coffee table books are usually themed and consist of striking photos, something that you'd lay there for your guests to pick up and browse.

[anders]

Catherine, it was actually a joke, but I agree it is difficult to joke on internet. My too sharp remark on coffee table books was made because I find it little attractive to end my life laying on a coffee table waiting for someone to pick me up while chatting !!

I want to come back to Craig’s comments to the three photos I forwarded.
I agree of course that these photos are not of great photographical quality. At least two of them are snapshots, but all are, in my view, extremely expressive. They are not representing beautiful attractive people (at least we cannot see them clear enough to know) but they represent figures of street life in big cities like Paris that carry with them the history and soul of the city. Especially the blurred blue picture is a typical figure you see searching for intellectual nutrition in the bookstands along the Seine river and who I here found in the rain with wet feet waiting to cross the street at Port Royal.
As concerns the picture of the bridge, I might have fallen in the trap of seeing the Pont Neuf, the oldest and most romantic bridge in Paris, as I see it, without bothering about communicating the impressions. I will rework it. It is, as far I can see a question of contrast and more saturated colours. The material is there (RAW).
The first of the three is also in my view the most photogenic scene. The person (it is a women running home with croissants for Sunday morning breakfast) is working fast in the rain and she is, in my view, in the exact perfect place in he scene with one foot on the back stones that make us enter the picture. The wet stone at the foreground highlights the cold atmosphere of much modern town planning illustrated by the grand bow of the exposition hall in the centre. The women has certainly her reasons to run !
All that is of course fully subjective but I hope that my way of telling the story is relevant for others. Craig that you find inspiration for going further and working on the photos I see as a complement.
Anders