These images from Paris were shot entirely with film. Some of the film was expired, making for some interesting effects.  I’m going to let a picture say 1000 words…

After leaving my card reader at home and feeling really weighed down with my D3, I’ve been shooting mostly film since I’ve been in Paris.  But after seeing an exhibit featuring Michael Kenna across the street  at the Biblioteque Nationale yesterday, I was finally inspired to completely put away my digital camera and document this trip with film.  I am tired of looking at the view finder, and as easy as it sounds to simply turn it off, I don’t have the will power.  With film, you have “one shot”, or you’re going to burn through film like it’s going out of style (although I think it’s already out).  I have had so much fun with my little Nikon fM2 making fine art images here in Paris and not being able to see what I’m getting, and there is no pressure to run home and blog them.  I’m making art for art’s sake and am feeling so much more alive doing it with film.  Now I get to return home and get excited about processing these images… it’s truly like a contination of the trip.  Then I get to print them in the restored Denver platinum dark room.  It’s all so fun and refreshing for me which is what I need this time of year.  I plan on blogging these at some point, and perhaps even showing them in my studio in the beginning of the year.  Until then, you’ll have to wait and wonder with me.

I’m finally in Paris again–my home away from home.  It feels so wonderful to be here—the air, the smell, the sounds, the shopping, the walking, the wine… I could on and on, and I will, but I forgot my card reader at home  so until I get a new one this photo will have to suffice.  It is a photo taken from my iphone of my private terrace overlooking the rooftops of the 1st arr.  Nuf said—life is good.

Every year around mid-January, excitement stirs when I start to see the stock show parking signs on I-25.  I don’t know what it is about this annual event,  but I love it!    The National Western Stock show is a smorgasbord of “Americana”.  There is everything to be found at here, from  cowboy boots to funnel cakes. And of course there are all the adorable animals.   But for me it’s the people watching that I love the most, and this year I brought my camera.   So if you’re like Jesse, and have an allergy attack just nearing the stables, or  if you just can’t handle the skirt-chasing, Coors drinking cowboy culture, then  hopefully you can live vicariously through these images and take a trip down a genre of true Americana….

I couldn’t leave Paris without doing a little night shooting in Pigalle, although it took some guts to go out there at night with my 70-200mm and photograph the sex district of Paris (Pigalle by the way, means pig alley)—serious guts. So, I took along some friends and we “created” Pigalle through my eyes with a few set up shots and some models ( thanks to Cayetana, and Cayetan).

Prostitution is legal in France and Pigalle is the red light district adorned with sex shops, strip clubs and “champagne bars” where a glass of champagne –depending on the type, is actually a sexual act. It’s colorful, intimidating and wonderful all at once, if you can get stomach the prostitutes and pimp’s constant persuasion to get you to come into their clubs. Nan Goldin must love this place. I thought of her during the entire shoot. Sorry there aren’t more images here, but like I said I was pretty nervous shooting, and standing still and shooting with my telephoto felt overly conspicuous and, well rude. This will be something I’ll have to work on if I want to continue shooting the underbellies of society. Because this little collection truly is, a pathetic depiction of Pigalle….