Second Day of Paris Workshop
Some of us meet for breakfast just down the street from our hotel. There are splendid views in either direction. Looking back up the hill, there is the magnificent Panthéon, originally constructed as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve but later changed to house the remains of distinguished French citizens, including Braille, Hugo, Moulin, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Zola. Down the hill and way beyond Jardin du Luxembourg stands la Tour Eiffel, that iconic Paris monument that was only meant to stand twenty years until the permit for its location ran out. Paris obviously decided to keep it!
It is a gray day, and people want to do some imaging. Perhaps we will head to the Fondation HCB to see works by Henri Cartier-Bresson and others, but it is raining. Clearly, we are not going to spend the day in our rooms. I had left my umbrella at home, and the hotel ones are large and cumbersome. There is a famous umbrella store quite near the gardens and right around the corner from one of our favorite places to sit by the sidewalk and photograph the passing scenes. Since it is lunch time, we decide to stop first and enjoy some soup and salad and, of course, a bit of wine.
It starts raining again, and the umbrellas go up, then get collapsed when the rain stops. This goes on for close to two hours, each of us concentrating on our respective chosen scenes, waiting for waited for things to happen. Photography takes patience, as scenes with people do not always come together as one might wish. In several of my photographs, the young man sitting with his parents selects the precise moment to stretch his elbows out as far as he can … delete, delete, delete. The elbows are not arty for me!
A stop at the umbrella store ensures that it will not rain for the rest of the day, and it does not! I call it the “Umbrella Theory.”
We zig and zag through the streets of Paris to the Museum, stopping here and there for photographs. In the gardens, the light on a tree catches my eye.
The museum is tucked around a corner in a little cul-de-sac, a six-story building of white walls and lots of glass. With a small footprint, the galleries are small, but we study and critique the images from Patrick Faigenbaum’s “Kolkata/Calcutta.” As with any exhibition, there are some images we quite like and others that leave us cold. On the third floor are some classic photographs of Cartier-Bresson, and above that, reading and research lofts, light and airy and attractively laid out.
On the way back down the stairs, I notice two gentlemen looking over a book of photography that they may have just bought at the museum.
It is time to head back to the hotel for critiques, but we choose a different route for the return walk, taking in different sites.
Later, we head around the corner to another Italian restaurant for dinner. We have walked a lot today, and I am hungry, so do a quick grab shot with my iPhone. The dinner is not as prettily presented as last night, but it is still quite tasty. And the bottle of Sicilian Nero d’Avola works well for all of us.
The owner is from northern Italy, and he and one of our “spousal units” speak rapid Italian together. I catch some words, but am clearly not up to their conversation!
Our conversation drifts from photography to the Paris Air Show, to whatever. Life is good.
Next: In Paris
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