37 Rue Andre Antoine – Paris 18ème
Le mur des je t’aime – Place des Abbesses – Paris 18ème
Metro Concorde – ligne 12 – Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen
These memorials to Jewish children can be found on schools around Paris – a stark reminder of the 75,721 jews deported from France during the war. Fewer than 2,000 survived. These memorials also draw attention to the controversial role of the French authorities in assisting this process – a subject that remains in dispute to this day
Rue Denoyez – Paris 20ème – Monday
Rue Denoyez – Paris 20ème – Wednesday
Rue Denoyez – Paris 20ème
Rue Denoyez – Paris 20ème
Rue de Ménilmontant Paris 20ème
Rue Jouye Rouve Paris 20ème
Place Maurice Chevalier Paris 20ème
Boulevard de Belleville – vers Metro Belleville – Paris 20ème
Rue Ramponeau Paris 20ème – here rest the remains of Albert Chelbluns a member of the resistance – died for France 14 January 1945 – aged 20 years
Parc de belleville Paris 20ème – site of the last battles of the Paris Commune in 1871 – a tribute to those who struggle for freedom and justice (social justice!)
Rue Ramponeau Paris 20ème
Paris 20ème
rue de L’Ermitage Paris 20ème
Rue de Belleville – Paris 20ème
Rue de Belleville – Paris 20ème
Rue de Belleville – Paris 20ème
Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud – Paris 11ème
Canal St Martin – Paris 10ème
Quai de la Marne – Paris 19ème
Rue des Trois Freres – Paris 18ème
The murals at Abbessses metro have been in place since the mid 1990s – and added to throughout this time. In the renovations of 2007 they were removed.
Quai de Valmy – Paris 10ème
Paris has been renovating its metro stations – stripping back the cladding that covered the original tiling and advertisment hoardings.
Le Politburo – I remember it being a vietnamese restaurant. In its new guise it was little more than a stripped out shell – painted red with chairs that probably came from a school and a bar.
Rue des Montorgueil – Paris 2ème
Rue Des Rosiers – Paris 4ème
Rue Des Rosiers – Paris 4ème
Rue de Cascades Paris 20ème
Rue de Cascades Paris 20ème
Rue de Cascades Paris 20ème
Villa de L’Ermitage – Paris 20ème
Villa de L’Ermitage – Paris 20ème, Mosko et Associés
Villa de L’Ermitage – Paris 20ème
Rue de Moussey – Paris 4ème – M. Lecorre 1979
Metro Abbesses – Paris 18ème
MK2 cinema Quai de la Seine – Paris 19ème
Wembley Foods, rue du Faubourg St Denis, Paris 10ème
Paris 18ème
Boulangerie de Tradition
Canal St Martin – Paris 10ème
Quai de Valmy – Paris 10ème
Quai de la Seine – Paris 19ème, Lets hope you will understand the word ‘respect’
Rue Bichat – Paris 10ème, You, I love you in a tuxedo
Rue Des Rosiers – Paris 4ème
Paris 8ème
Quai de l’Archevêché – Paris 4ème
Rue Denoyez – Paris 20ème
Eglise St Merri – Paris 4ème
Pont des artes
Vigilance Propreté – Pont des artes
A recent trip to Paris in November 2011 encouraged me to re-trace some of the steps I had taken when I first created the series, ‘Les Murs de Paris’. I wanted to see what had changed and what had remained the same over the five years that had passed from my initial walks around the city.
Much of my focus during this trip was to explore the area where I had lived in Paris during the late 1990s – the 20ème, and more specially the area around Belleville. The streets around my old Paris home have seen a great deal of change. While I lived in the city an area of low rise around rue de L’Ermitage had been endangered by re-development – but a campaign led by leading artists put a halt to this. But as I walked around in November 2011 I could see that development was slowly encroaching on this low rise hold out among the tower blocks of this north eastern Paris district.
One of the streets I had walked down in early 2006, rue Denoyez is now covered in graffiti as the developers move in and réaménagement takes hold. Walking up to Parc Belleville from rue Denoyez, a recent plaque marks the site of the last battles of the Paris Commune that occurred on 28 May 1871. The plaque is a tribute to those who fought for freedom and justice to which someone has added ‘social justice’. Longer standing memorials mark the deaths of resistance fighters, and on many school buildings the deportation of Jewish children during the 1940s. Walking down rue de Rosiers in the 4ème a newer memorial at number 16 marks the home of several jewish residents who were deported – a reflection perhaps on Gunter Demnig’s Stolpersteine Project?
Many of the things I photographed in 2006 have long since gone; the wall murals at Abbesses metro station (all nice and white now), the prowling tigers at Ville de L’Ermitage and the cat at rue de cascades – replaced by sperm. But it was nice to see that the tigers in rue des rosiers are still there – though someone has added ‘nature strikes back’ over the original mural.
It’s been about 8 months since I left Paris … I am glad to see you had a chance to travel there last fall. I am missing a lot of things from there … Hope to see you sometime very soon 🙂