I have visited the beautiful city of Paris, France many times since 1987 and have always been taken aback by its elegance and grandeur.
I arrived and departed from Paris Gare du Nord Station on a straight train ride through the Channel Tunnel from London’s Kings Cross Station.
In 1997 I was on a short trip to Paris to start a few days of photographing this lovely city, when circumstances out of my control meant my stay was cut short to just 3 hours. The pressure was on to see as much as possible. I walked for miles, travelled on the Metro and passed through a lot of the Arrondissements of Paris, from the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Sacre-Coeur Basilica, down cobble streets to Montmartre, then on to Place De La Concorde, before heading back to the Gare du Nord Station.
I was surprised to have taken so many photographs of Paris in such a short period of time. On my return, I went straight into the darkroom to process the Kodak Plus x Pan film. I am sure that other photographers will agree with me when I say – once the film is out of the fixer, I can’t help but have a quick look off the spiral at the negatives before the final washing stage.
These were the days when you had to wait to see what you had taken! Unlike today where you can see your photograph in a split second.
As in image 001 – the phone box was a life-line and if you wanted to speak to someone you had to walk to find an empty kiosk, whereas today all is available on your mobile phone. Walking around the streets of Paris seemed quite relaxed and not too busy with a lovely peaceful atmosphere. From street to street, it was hard not to take a photograph, luckily I brought enough film.
Today I have 4 of my favourite Paris photographs perfectly lit up on my wall at home.
PARIS IN 3 HOURS 1997
