Portofino

Shots from a few days staying on the coast of Liguria.

My friend Marion has opened a print shop selling 5 very beautiful medium format Rolleicord prints. It's only open until the 21st of March so have a look!

 

Just back from an inspiring time at Paris photo.
One particular discovery was the work of the New York based photographer Adam Bartos - especially his images from the book International Territory.

Bagnolet

On coffee

I've been missing my flat whites since getting back from New Zealand. Even more so today after seeing these posts from Marion and Kristina.
Still, French cafés are not so bad, especailly if madeleines are involved.

coffee & cameras

I met Marion & Robert for breakfast on a very rainy morning in Paris a couple of weeks ago.
You can see her side of the table here.

kodak elitechrome 100eb

Anish Kapoor au Grand Palais

I was luckily enough to see Anish Kapoor's scultpure at the Grand Palais in Paris last week. Mille merci Marion for the tip. I went early to beat the ques. It was the last day of exhibition. Merci encore Marion! I'd never been to the Grand Palais before and was completely wowed by the space.

You can see more shots of Monumenta here, here & here.

kodak ektar 100

croque monsieur

Paris was never my favourite city. Sure I found it romantic and beautiful but for a long time it was edginess that I looked for in a city, as well as beauty. But I've changed my tune and with each visit I become more enamoured with it's style and plain attention to detail.
Take for example this Croque Monsieur. It's so much more than just a 'toasted sandwich'. There's no messing about with it. It's goodness shines through.
Incidently this, believe it or not, was my first Croque Monsieur and it was a goodie.

merci

Each time I go to Paris I have a list of places I want to explore. Merci a newly opened concept shop in the branché 3rd arrondisement, was one such place on my list. It's very stylish with lots of branded clothes labels. These brands however, are conceding their profit margin to give to charities in Madagascar. There's a florist, perfumerie, stationery shop and lots of home and kitchenware. The café is also a secondhand book shop with a NYC meets French chic feel about it.

jean nouvel

While I was in Paris last week I revisited the Institut du Monde Arabe built in the mid 80s. It was built in partnership with Architecture Studio a group of seven architects founded in 1973.
Although Jean Nouvel has built other impressive buildings in Paris (notably the Foundation Cartier and more recently the Musée du Quai Branly) I think the Institut du Monde Arabe is still his best structure.
The facade is a huge wall of Islamic patterned mechanised metal irises which can be closed to prevent light coming in.
Inside on the ground floor is a very stylish café where you can get a pricey but very good mint tea and choose from an array of arabic cakes.
My selection came with what was actually a layer of uncooked meringue, sprinkled with chopped pistachio nuts!