Last week, I resumed my normal routine in Saint-Denis. Since the end of June, the kids have been on holiday and I’ve been hanging around the streets less often. It’s always the same during this period, I continue to do Street Photography, but in a different way. As you may have noticed, I took a lot more photos at the beach or other places where we’d been hanging out during the holidays. Back in the charming monotonous streets of Saint-Denis, where there’s little or nothing going on… Nah, I’m kidding, I told you I’d stop going on about how boring the streets of my town are! Well, it’s true that there’s not a lot going on, but if you look around a bit and put a bit of effort into it, you can still find some interesting things.
Continue reading OMG they moved it !
Tag Archives: Street Photography
What if I didn’t start Street Photography in 2016 ?
One of my great regrets is that I started Street Photography so late. Not that I don’t like the era I’m photographing now, but I do have a preference for earlier years. If you ask me to name my favourite street photographers, I’d definitely include Gary Winogrand. OK, that’s several decades ago… So yes, I would have liked to have started shooting street photography back in the 60s and 70s when film was still around. Give me a DeLorean so I could jump back in time!
Continue reading What if I didn’t start Street Photography in 2016 ?
Behind this shot : YMY
Before anyone gets on me about this photo I took on the beach last week, I’d like to say that I’m completely comfortable with it. Yes, it’s sexy and yes, it was taken with a man’s eye. Let’s go back a bit. Last Thursday I decided to take the boys to the beach. For the occasion, Nathan, a friend of Joachim’s, accompanied us as he had spent the night at our place. Our initial plan was to go to Boucan Canot in the west, as the children love this beach. Unfortunately, a strong wind and swell warning had been issued for the west coast and south of the island. The direct consequence was that the nets were not installed at Boucan and so swimming was impossible. We decided to go further south of the island to Etang Salé beach.
Stop whining and shoot for the fuck’s sake !
I recently complained to Deborah Swain that the streets of Saint-Denis were dead and uninteresting. It’s always like that. When things don’t go the way you want, you have to find scapegoats. Oh yes, my camera is rather old … The streets are terribly empty … There’s nothing going on here … You know, it’s a small city compared to NYC (as if everything wasn’t small compared to NYC …) In short, all sorts of excuses that aren’t worth a damn. I’ve already written many blogs about this, but I get the impression that it’s human nature not to learn lessons (who said anything about wars?).
Continue reading Stop whining and shoot for the fuck’s sake !
Holiday Part 1
The children have officially been on holiday for a week now. Joachim has already been on holiday since mid-June … In any case, Gwen and I are also on holiday with the kids for 3 weeks (only two left after this first week). We took the opportunity to spend this first week in the west of the island. A friend was kind enough to rent us his house while he was away. The house has direct access to the beach. You should know that Réunion Island is in the southern hemisphere and that July and August mean winter here. Ok southern winter, but winter all the same…
No Name #1
You’ve probably already seen songs called No Name. Only on his album Roman Candle, the late songwriter Elliott Smith wrote No Name #1, No Name #2 and No Name #3! I took the liberty of imitating him, because to tell you the truth, I don’t have any ideas for titles for this Blog. About 2 months ago I started writing a Blog about my 7 years of Street Photography. I completely abandoned it when it was well advanced … That’s a sign! I tend to think of it as a kind of Freudian failure. There was probably no point in writing a blog about the 7 years I spent on the streets. To mark the occasion, I’d put together a slideshow of almost 50 photos from when I first started out. Shoo, bin!
Black & White saturday
Since the beginning of the year, I have started shooting again with my Ricoh GRD IV. One of the reasons I mentioned was that I needed to get back to what I know well to help me enjoy the streets again. For several weeks now, things have been going well. I don’t really ask myself any more questions. I take pictures and that’s it. What I realise is that in the end I started shooting with the Ricoh GRD IV again, simply because I love this camera.
Continue reading Black & White saturday
About AI …
In recent weeks, we have heard a lot about Artificial Intelligence (AI). A bit of everything. It started with ChatGPT. Then we started talking about software like Midjourney. I know almost nothing about these programs, but I hear about them and John Harper passed me a few links with pictures made by AI. It’s pretty amazing and impressive. John has written a very good article on the subject here. Go and have a look.
Macron, you’re a disgrace to Ricoeur !
For those who don’t know, Paul Ricoeur is a French philosopher. Macron, the French president, says that it was Ricoeur who made him want to enter politics. Myth or reality? What is certain is that Macron was close to him when he wrote his last book “Memory, History and Oblivion”. I’m not going to say more than that because I don’t know him very well and when you know that I got 06/20 in philosophy at the baccalaureate, you won’t want to see me debating on the subject… This photo was taken during the last strike against the pension reform. That’s what’s interesting about such events. People use a lot of imagination for the occasion. I stopped and googled Macron and Ricoeur to get the message…
Street Photography : The path to recovery
In my previous blog, I told you that I was going to try to do everything I could to rediscover the pleasure of walking the streets of Saint-Denis to document them. For almost 7 years now, I have been indulging in this practice that many people have difficulty understanding. Street Photography. What is the point of taking pictures of strangers ? Of course, if you are a frequent visitor to this Blog, I will be pushing open doors by explaining to you what this practice consists of. I have already exchanged with friends or even strangers and I must say that it is complicated to explain Street Photography. At best, you look like a madman, at worst, like a perverted voyeur who takes pictures underhandedly …
