posted on 19 May 2016

Paris Mon Amour by Jean-Claude Gautrand

The romance of Paris rather passed me by on the one occasion I visited it. Actually, that rather understates my feelings about the place – I actually didn’t like it and I most certainly didn’t like the people living there. I found the Parisians I came into contact with surly, unfriendly and sneering and the city itself blousy and full of a sense of its own importance. I guess that there might be a number of reasons for this; firstly, I was a tourist and this seemed to give me a status only marginally above that of the invertebrates and, secondly, I am working class in what felt to me a city built on class snobbishness.

However, what is undeniable is that many people have had quite the opposite reaction to the place and have felt Paris to be their spiritual home – amongst them great writers and artists who I very much admire. It must also be one of the most photographed cities ever and there are so many iconic images that have the streets of Paris as their backdrop. It’s a city that especially seems to open up to the black and white photographic print and there are some positively luminous photographs by some of the world’s most famous photographers.

Jean-Claude Gautrand’s book Paris Mon Amour, published by Taschen, brings together many of these very famous photographs in one place. It’s not until you see them all gathered together in this collection that it really hits home just how many are so well known they could almost be described as household images. The roll-call of photographers represented here is also quite staggering – a gallery of the world’s greatest: Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Doisneau, and Jeanloup Sieff to name but a few.

This is a book that lets the images do the talking – there is almost no need for text – and the photographs are arranged to open up the geography of the city, taking you on a photographic ‘walk’ through the districts and streets of the French capitol.

I don’t usually buy these sort of compilations – it’s a bit like the photographic equivalent of buying greatest hits albums – but I made an exception in this case because of the quality of the selection and the outstanding reproduction of the prints. You can pick up copies of this book for absurdly low prices – under £5 – on the second hand market and under £10 new. It is a lovely book and would also make a great gift for anyone interested in great black and white photography.

 

Terry Potter

May 2016