Paris undercurrents

(2004 - 2022)

Paris is my spiritual home. A photographer’s dream. Visual culture is part of the DNA. Aesthetically, it veers severely between stereotypical picture-perfection, to a brutal, postmodern city. I find this contrast utterly seductive. At first glance, every detail is measured. Precise, radial streets; artistry of the boulanger’s tartes; sinewy handwriting on signs and menus. Scratch beneath that, one finds the heartbeat. Dingy, dark, very much of its time. The 1960s and 70s were rocky in French design, architecture and urban planning; in Paris they spawned the unfit-for-purpose banlieues défavorisées, dingy RER stations, and the Tour Montparnasse.