Saturday 29 September 2012

Embarrassed Of Paris


Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles
~ Embarrassed Of Paris ~

Embarrassed Of Paris by Paris Set Me Free
Embarrassed Of Paris, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.


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Someone I don't know, but whose right to her own opinion I utterly respect, recently accused this blog of being 'bawdy'. That is to say, too bawdy for her, I presume.

Now, I can only conclude that she doesn't know my blog very well, doesn't know the definition of 'bawdy', or simply doesn't know Paris!

The fact that the first post she probably stumbled upon happened to be this one of a newsagents display with a couple of porn mags' front covers well in view undoubtedly didn't help... As didn't the title I borrowed from one of them, American Erection Special, which I assumed was just some poor Japanese phonetic translation...

However, I have to take issue with this 'bawdy' claim. The first definitions I came across confirmed my suspicions: her understanding of the word is shaky to say the least. Humorously coarse and risqué was they first. Humour I'd love to aspire to when appropriate. Coarseness isn't my thing. Risqué is actually rather good because it's got an e-acute in it so that must be sophisticated, right?

Vulgar, lewd, indecent and even obscene were other popular near synonyms. Hmm. The problem is, I only ever reflect what I see in full view to everyone in the streets of this city of contrasts myself. For me, as regular readers know well, a homeless person, with their face respectfully hidden, is just as valid as another banal picture of the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame.

If you can walk down a busy high street and have porn mags in full view of the kids and other potentially objectionable items which I discussed in the aforementioned post, then I'll tell you about it. I almost consider it my duty to do so, and assume that's one of the reasons quite a few of you read me in the first place.

What our mistaken friend probably didn't get around to realising is that I'll discuss with just as much gusto the story of an intriguing headless statue or a strange revolutionary or irreligious inscription or doomed mediaeval lovers or an unusually painted fountain or any number of other Paris quirks and curiosities I think you would be interested in knowing about. This is unfortunate.

As is today's Paris picture, which probably won't do my cause much good if she ever returns to the obscene Paris and I photo blog... An extremely common occurrence of course - that of the notorious 'Massage pour Hommes', and if you were thinking what I think you were probably thinking, then you're probably right... I've considerately left the phone number in so you can do your own research if you wish. Think nothing of it. (Oops, was that 'humorously course'?) But honestly they are everywhere, on any given drainpipe, on any chosen corner, and as with the naughty mags and the wine in every household at every meal, the less of a guilt complex something is given the less of a problem it seems to be. Décomplexé the French call it, and I'm not sure it isn't a rather good way of looking at things.

And so I shall continue to offer you the best and from time to time the worse this wanton place has to propose, as it calls me, and feel all the better for having said so. Coming up in my next post: a humorously coarse and definitely risqué, lewd and indecently vulgar exposé of... a lover's lock on a bridge. Sorry folks, but don't worry, I have a new shot of Paris' obscène extending Pont du Carrousel lamp posts coming up right behind...



And why not...
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Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

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