Paris: Jeu de Paume

8pm – Saturday night.


Today I went to a gallery called Jeu de Paume. I had researched all of the major galleries in the city before leaving home and found out that Robert Frank had an exhibit there. I went with my good friend Ryan who is currently staying in Paris with his wife (who was in school today.)

He didn’t know what I was bringing him to but seemed excited at the thought of going to a photography exhibit. We decided when we go there that we should see the other exhibits beforehand because we thought that what Frank would have would probably be the best… and so we started with Mario Garcia Torres. Wow. We stood inside the darkest room I’ve ever been in (it actually scared me to go in because I was afraid that I would somehow lose my body) and watched a black and white slide show. And within moments I knew where we were and I was of course in love – Tokyo. Amazing set of photos. It made me want to go back to Tokyo right then and there!

Next we saw Sophie Ristelhueber’s exhibit (of course you have to think this was after I saw some amazing pictures of Tokyo!) It didn’t do that much for me. There were a couple of really good photographs in the set but I found that overall it was a little too heavy perhaps for me? [a lot of her exhibit was pictures taken after the war in various areas of the world – Beirut, Irak and West Bank – none of these pictures were people pictures but rather architecture or landscape shots.]

Finally – Robert Frank! I didn’t expect the “Les Americains” to be on exhibit – I’m pretty familiar with this set of photos (I was actually thinking of buying the book a few weeks ago). It was pretty cool to see these pictures on the wall and in the order he thinks they belong in (I’ve only ever seen them on my computer screen.) This was put next to his Paris photographs taken in the early 50s. It was such an interesting contrast. The American pictures definitely had a very ‘lonely’ feeling to them whereas the Paris ones felt more like he was interacting with people in the photographs. It’s hard to put into words… but I think it had to do with the wideness (for a lack of a better word right now) of the photos. The American set were much more close whereas the Paris stuff was much more wide, giving you more ‘information’ about the scenes.

I have to say… I was pretty happy with this gallery! It was cheap to get in (actually, I got in free because some random stranger gave me his ticket! Yay! I love random strangers!), the gallery was really nice and the right size and not too busy and really had some amazing exhibits!!

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So far I’ve taken a fairly substantial number of pictures. I don’t know if any of them are good – I don’t want to waste my time here in my hotel room editing pictures. I know a lot of them are pretty bad – I’ve been trying hip shots when I feel too exposed (or too at risk) to take regular pictures.

I’m relaxing in my hotel room right now, sipping some really well-priced Wyborowa vodka (12 Euros for 700ml!) with Orangina and snacking on camembert and ‘biscottes’ [kind of like thick melba toast] – all of my purchases including the vodka cost me 20 Euros – I think I did okay – this includes a Red Bull, more crackers and cheese than I care to eat by myself, a huge bottle of Orangina and a reusable shopping bag.

I walked everywhere today so my legs are feeling a little tired. Later I will meet up with Aleks and Ryan, have dinner and then going out. Tomorrow I will be moving to their apartment for the rest of my stay.

That’s it for now! Time to head out!