Three in Paris

Each of these photographs represents what, for me, is quintessential Paris. The top picture, "Le Flaneur," is from 2001, and I remember clearly following this man for at least an hour as he moved along the Seine, over the bridge and into the Left Bank, stopping to look in galleries and shops and just being what the French call a "Flaneur," a stroller. The middle photograph is from 1997 in the Place des Vosges in the Marais, perhaps the most beautiful square in Paris, and a group of Jewish schoolchildren is having a "pique-nique." The bottom photograph, from 2000, shows a dying breed, les "Bouquinistes," the vendors along the Seine selling mostly books, old postcards, posters, original artwork, and magazines. While I am not particularly nostalgic about film, there's no denying it does have a different look from digital, and I am reminded of how different every time I go crawling through the archives.