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Saturday, 7 January 2012

Sunshine In My Stomach


iPhone Photo Chronicles
~ Sunshine In My Stomach ~


Sunshine In My Stomach, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.
BONUS: For Street Photography Fans!

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Even the fishing cat’s deserted his eponymous street tonight with weather like this, people scuttling like rats under the gloomsomely precipitating Parisian sky.

Tourist there are still, although not so many, and of those hardly a one who seems much impressed by this particular aspect of the French capital: rain, and lots of it at this season.

Me, I like the stuff. I seem to be made for scurrying through the Parisian streets, wrapped up, preferably, but quite at home under all sorts of weather conditions; it must be the Brit in me.

The other day – was it yesterday? – I told you about what is purported to be the narrowest house in Paris, a few blocks down the left bank from here. Today, I can show you what some claim to be the narrowest street.

Some of us know better, but let’s put it this way: it’s narrow. Goes down the side of what used to be my favourite crazy Greek restaurant when I was marrying Greeks and suchlike. Now it’s some horrendously kitch neon-lit club-bar-thing. Yuk. Bring back the joyful jumble of Phoenician paraphernalia and table-eating waiters… you had to be there.

Now graffiti artists seem to be enjoying decorating this place and they’ve done a pretty good job of it. Nemo especially always seems to produce things we can interact with in a non-threatening, almost benevolent way. Like offering an umbrella on a right old rainy day.

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© 2011
Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Friday, 6 January 2012

The City Seethes


iPhone Photo Chronicles
~ The City Seethes ~


The City Seethes, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.
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The Rue Saint-Jacques, around 8 pm on a chilly early winter evening.

Who said Paris doesn’t breathe? Or maybe ooze would be a better term. And with the help of my special alternative reality filter (which I fit to all my cameras) we can sometimes peek into the other side of the city.

Right next to the rather spooky Saint-Severin church, and I’ve always found even the name, Severin, to be rather sinister, there was one of those strange contraptions spouting smoke or something right in the middle of the pavement without any indication as to why or wherefore.

This seemed to be associated with a seeping of simmering water which logically found the gutter and proceeded to run off down hill towards the Seine, a-steaming nicely as it went.

Here you see what I ended up making of it, and as you can see, my visual interpretation is a lot prettier than my verbal one. Sometimes only a picture will do, and I think this is one of them.

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© 2011
Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Thursday, 5 January 2012

Upstairs Downstairs


iPhone Photo Chronicles
~ Upstairs Downstairs ~


Upstairs Downstairs, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.
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A bit of a Sunday spook-out, this one, due mainly to the processing-to-hell that was necessary to drag anything out of the contrastless mush I started with.

Not that it's just any old Parisian Seine-side scene, not that you could tell. You see, this building, or more precisely the column of windows on the right with the two lit and two dark windows gets pointed out on most of the Bateaux-Mouches cruises you're likely to take up and down this proud river. And why?

Because, although it's a little hard to see in the pic, this is one of those 'houses' which lays claim to a 'record', that of being the smallest - in this case narrowest - house in the city.

There are others which also say they are the smallest, but not having a tape-measure, and not being quite sure on what criteria these things are judged, I couldn't say who's right.

But looking from the river, or the other bank, you go get the impression that this is a very very narrow house indeed. One room wide, to be precise, and not a very wide one at that.

It actually seems to be squeezed in between two other buildings, is a little recessed from the one on the left, and has its very own roof which is also at a height incongruous to its neighbours.

The result is quite charming, and just one more little curiosity of many which go to make this city such a special place. I'll show you some more extremely narrow houses and passages shortly.

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© 2011
Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Metro Mavens


iPhone Photo Chronicles
~ Metro Mavens ~


Metro Mavens, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.
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There's little more pleasing than a complaisantly reclining maiden compulsively declining maven, subjugating to the master of all books. Except when he's in his books, he's IN HIS BOOKS!

Despite the efforts of the good maiden.

Recognise the metro? One of the most obscure and beautiful in the whole system. Nice.

And I'm still waiting for you to tell me your favourite wild metro entrances / exits.

Sab Thanks.

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© 2011
Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

May The Farce Be With You


iPhone Photo Chronicles
~ May The Farce Be With You ~

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The people with their backs to us in the photo call themselves ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’, and this activity takes up quite a few of their waking hours.

Here we see them standing outside Daumesnil metro station in the 12th at the somewhat ungodly hour of 8 am on a Saturday morning. Some of their fellow group members did the same thing when my local train station was Gentilly on the RER line B.

I’m not quite sure what they want.

They are generally holding, or in this case ‘displaying’ some of their magazines. These publications cover a range of cosy family and personal issues, some quite profound, such as drug abuse and abortion, or dealing with difficult teenage kids, which, heaven knows, I'd like to do without ;~S

There are also some stranger articles where they try to get you to join their weird and sinister cult, which is run out of the United States by a shady group of people making a hell of a lot of money from these poor brainwashed folks by preying on their insecurities in order to make them believe some frankly ridiculous shit about the future, as if they could know.

Unfortunately, the only thing the sect’s managers are concerned about is the future state of their pockets, adequately lined by the dollars of their dopey victims.

Hmm, sounds like most religions and businesses, come to think of it.

The most worrying thing is the dopiness or vulnerability of their targeted clients. It’s the scariest thing.

So anyway, here they are, mindlessly trying to sell their nonsense, because they’ve been told to, and because they get brownie points from their ‘new family’ if they do, and all the rest of the stupid farce. If they don’t meet their targets no doubt they’ll get ostracised, and having already lost their family due to the ridiculous demands of the cult they’ll be left to wander the streets until kingdom come.

HEY, don’t look at me like that! These people accosted ME with their loony propaganda as I innocently exited my metro station!. What is a sane soul to do? I don’t go around shoving my lack of belief in fairies, gnomes, elves and Steve Jobs coming to give me an iPad 2 this Christmas down the throats of innocent bystanders. Should they, perhaps, get a life?

After all, only a few, even of their kind, are actually going to be ‘saved’, according to their pamphlets, come the cruel judgement day, so even a fair number of their nearest and dearest are going to burn, horribly, in excruciating agony, in absolute, unimaginable pain for, what was it again, oh yes, eternity.

This is the nonsense we are being subjected to on exiting your average Parisian metro station. Sympa. Luckily, there’s a hospital just around the corner. Let's hope they have a wackos wing. This way madness lies, indeed.

Not that the other religions should get complacent. They’re all peddling the same thing in the end if they actually read their holey books.

So anyway, isn’t the Paris metro sign looking wintery all of a sudden? Maybe because it’s winter, although with today’s temperatures you wouldn’t think so (thanks Global Warming). May the farce be with you. Now you know what they want.

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© 2011
Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Monday, 2 January 2012

Think You've Got A Crap Job?


iPhone Photo Chronicles
~ Think You've Got A Crap Job? ~




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The French sometimes complain about their travail de merde (shitty job), but they're generally exaggerating.

If the lady above used this term, on the other hand, she'd be quite within her rights. She's probably got the shittiest job of them all.

She cleans the toilets used by people from all over the place. Possibly the world. In a way you could say she's an internationalisht. Hobnobbing on a global scale, albeit through the back door, as it were.

To each their empire. You know when you're in the realms of the little Asian woman from the Gare de Lyon brick merde house. I heard her screaming at some poor guy for heading off towards the ladies instead of the gents the other day.

We all make mistakes. But we pay for them down there. Down there in the kingdom of the sinking turd. Think it absurd but long-haired travellers and managing directors all fall under the same brush.

No need to rush! I guess she'll be there, tomorrow and tomorrow; there's plenty of time down there. Just don't linger on to stare, coz she'll shoo you out with a shout and you'll know you've met your match. She's the queen of clean. So don't bother thinking your thoughts obscene.

In her domain of orange and white, she does what's right. She does her job. A shitty job, in the purest sense of the term. So think before claiming you've a travail de merde, because some people really have, and their shit's yours. Which may smell of roses, but in all probability doesn't. For what that's worth.

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© 2011
Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Sunday, 1 January 2012

Fixing A Hole


iPhone Photo Chronicles
~ Fixing A Hole ~


Fixing A Hole, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.
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2011 seems to me to have been rather a scrappy, leaky, neither here nor there year, and yet in truth I've achieved a fair bit. I won't bore you with what that might be; if there's anything you're aware of from my efforts, consider it that.

As for new year's resolutions, I'm a past master at making and breaking them, so there's another thing I won't burden you with.

Those of you used to my irreverence won't be surprised when I say that even the cute idea of a year 'starting' (or finishing) on a given arbitrary date, whatever culture you live in (and it varies of course) always strikes me as somewhat ludicrous.

Almost as ludicrous as imagining any other species apart from ours (lions or cows, say) trading large quantities of assorted antelope body parts or part ruminated grass (respectively) for breast (or udder) implants. Gary Larson's 'Far Side' gets it dead right; what will we crazy humans dream up next?

The concept of a 'year' itself does seem to have some general validity for most of us here on earth though, whatever other wacky ideas we might have.

And it's probably useful to have these regular markers to allow us to take stock, and get back on course if need be. I'm not against it, as I'm not against any of these harmless social structures which help us to organise our lives.

I do reserve the right not to 'go crazy' at 'my' local midnight on the 31st of December in any given winter as though 'something' had actually happened or changed, which probably makes me an exceedingly boring person in many people's eyes, but there you go. I do 'go crazy' at other things though, undoubtedly just as meaningless (or exceptionally important if you prefer) as midnight at the end of relatively recent Decembers.

So to summarise, if you've made it this far, I'll be doing a lot more of this, and a fair amount less of that in 2012, and I recommend you do too. With wishes of success for you in your endeavours.

But don't worry if you've already broken this year's resolutions; remember: the next 365 days of your life 'always' starts tomorrow. And in the end, what you do tomorrow is irrelevant; it's what you do today that counts.

_________________________________________________________________________________
© 2011
Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.
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