________________________________
Afterword by Georges Tassiopoulos
Paris des lumières, Paris des ténèbres.
Éblouie par la lumière de la tour Eiffel et refroidie par le noir glacial de ses catacombes.
Décorée par les illuminations des Champs Élysée, et transpercée par les tunnels humides du métro, véritable serpent caché aux entrailles de la terre.
Glorifié à la Nation, à la République et à la Concorde, et hanté par le mur des Fédérés, la Bastille et les Invalides.
Paris ville fantôme : possédée par l’Opéra et les tombes du Père Lachaise.
Paris ville papillon : remplie des couleurs et des âmes de Barbès à Trocadéro.
Paris ville hédonique : avec les petits coins du plaisir des yeux et des papilles.
Paris de ses quartiers si chics, si classiques et si modernes.
Paris chargé à la fois, d’histoire et d’émotion, de St Germain des Près, à St Lazare et de Montmartre, à Montparnasse.
Ton âme est une grande dame. Une dame de fer. Et ton esprit une fontaine, à St Michel.
Ville musée, ville mode, ville monde. Un univers rayonnant jour et nuit.
Depuis 2000 ans.
Et ça continue. Pour le bonheur de nous tous!
Dr. Georges Tassiopoulos holds a PhD in comparative party politics (University of East Paris). He has lived in Paris since 2001.
________________________________
All photos | © Roman Gerodimos
Afterword | © Georges Tassiopoulos
If you enjoyed this photo-essay, feel free to…
C’est une exuberant, passionant piece de l’art!
Bravo Roman!
bisous x
as
Thanks so much Asli!
xx
superior
🙂 I knew you’d enjoy this
What powerful photos Roman! Great exhibition.
🙂 thanks so much for visiting Kat
You should start planning your next exhibition now Roman!…Good work! 🙂 I loved the coloured one the Brasserie?
🙂 Thanks Voula! A few ideas are cooking but looks like Munich is going to be the next one in early 2013.
Nice work, Roman. Congratulations!
I can’t help but notice most of the photos give a feeling of ‘the absence of man’ (except maybe the 6th and the 31st one). They depict some certain space where man, if any, blurs into the background, fades into meaningless silence. This tendency is shown in your previous exhibitions and this time it is especially demonstrated in the 21st photo of the opera house. I don’t know if it’s what you intended for but I do have a fondness for the concept “absence”. It reminds me of the city photos of Michael Wolf (http://photomichaelwolf.com/), which looks crowded but sounds silent. Well…Sometimes when it blurs, it becomes more distinct.
Jojo,
Thanks so much for visiting the exhibition and for your thoughtful observations.
That’s absolutely right – people very rarely feature in my photos and as you rightly pointed out that’s true for all my other exhibitions. There are many reasons for this – some more superficial than others. I might say that it’s because the camera isn’t good enough (it’s really not, it’s a very old Canon, doesn’t even zoom properly), or because I’m not good enough to focus on people, or there are lots of amazing photos of humans out there and don’t feel I have something to tell/add.
But these are not the main reasons- the real reason (and I’m still reflecting on this, because it all started very instinctively but then after the n-th photo essay I got a bit worried!) is perhaps that I’m trying to react against the me/I-centric zeitgeist permeating our culture, and highlight situations, landscapes and visual realities that are also about something greater than the individual (which is why I occasionally feature crowds in my photos).
My aesthetic code and the landscapes that I’m trying to re-present/construct play with that idea of an imagined past, of silence, of absence, of art, public space and civic culture as something that has been created by man but that is also somehow sacred – in the same way that if shooting a church, cemetery or other sacred space you might not focus on the individuals within it.
Hope that makes sense – but it’s all ‘reflection in progress’ I have to add.
Les photos me donnent un sensation calm… Cet exhibition est génial xx
Merci beaucoup Luby 🙂 À plus tard xx
καταπληκτική ιδέα , πολύ ωραίες φωτογραφίες,
Ευχαριστώ πολύ!
Another beautiful photo exhibit, Roman!
🙂 thank you Laura
I like the feeling of ’emptiness’. You might also call it loneliness or even slight despair.
Oh, the memories! 🙂
Very beautiful (and really hard work!) – thanks!
🙂 thank you xx
Congratulations, Roman. The quotes you used as inspirations for your photos were excellent, some wonderful literature backed up by very atmospheric photos; the opera house in particular looked incredible.
Well done.
Thanks Harvey! The Palais Garnier is possibly the most impressive and awe-inspiring building I’ve ever been to.