Tag: Paris

New London and Paris projects

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New London and Paris projects posted

Over the last 12 months I have slowly started to add some new London projects to the site. The latest, Action or Extinction is my second London bus project. It takes a different approach to the first, An Elevated View. I first started photographing from the bus during my commutes from my home in North London to work in West London, but I abandoned this approach, and An Elevated View evolved to become a focus on the London streetscape from the vantage point of the top deck of the bus, created from journeys on multiple routes across London at different times of the day.

Tufnell Park

I decided to return to documenting my commutes on the bus in 2018 and 2019 and Action or Extinction is the result. Unlike An Elevated View, most of Action or Extinction is from just one route, so a more uniform perspective and with the constraint that the work had to be made while commuting.

Marylebone

A Journey Along the Lea is my third approach to my walks along London’s second river and it’s a wide-ranging exploration from Hertford East in the home counties to where the river joins the Thames near the East India Docks in London. It is a journey that includes market towns, industrial estates and post-industrial landscapes. The chance discovery of an extract from a poem by William Vallens from the 16th Century determined the opening image for the series.

Hertford East

I have also just added another project from Paris to the site. The Not so Silent Line is a journey along a circular railway in Paris that follows the lines of the city’s former fortifications. Despite appearing to be abandoned, it remains part of the French National Railway Network.

Gare Avenue De St Ouen - Paris 18ème

Gare Avenue De St Ouen – Paris 18ème

Over the past decade more Parisians (and visitors) have become aware of this secret, or not so secret, green corridor in the city and many explore and treat it as just another park in the city. This has led the Paris City Mayor to make more of this vital green space in the city and to promote its benefits. While you can no longer walk the whole line you can trace its route around the city and explore its viaducts, trenches and tunnels, descending into a landscape where nature has reclaimed the city. I recommend that you listen to this BBC documentary from 2013 to find out more about La Petite Ceinture.

The threat that connects all of these projects is undertaking a journey. Whether on a London bus, walking along the Lea, or La Petite Ceinture, it is the act of following the path and seeing where it takes you.

I am hoping to add some more projects to the site shortly.

The Not so Silent Line

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When I lived in Paris in the late 1990s, I chanced one day upon a train sitting on the tracks at the bottom of my street. I’d passed these empty tracks many times before so was surprised to see a train waiting to embark its passengers, so I took a ride for a few kilometres. I was unaware then that I was travelling on a railway line that follows a circular route within the old fortifications of Paris.

La Petite Ceinture (little belt) was built between the 1850s and 1870s to connect the main railway stations of Paris. Designed to carry passengers and freight, it soon become the first metro in Paris, but from 1900 onwards, with the first modern metro lines built, passenger numbers declined and in 1934 the line was closed to passengers. By the early 1990s freight traffic too had also largely ceased. Apart from a few sections that have been transformed into public parks, most remain a landscape in limbo – a secret (or not so secret) route around the city.

I first started exploring the line almost a decade ago, when public access was prohibited apart from a few sections turned into public parks, but you could always find a way in, and Parisians occupied the space as if it were a public park. Several former stations have become cafes and restaurants and one of the former platforms has been turned into a public garden. In recent years more public spaces have been launched and more access points opened as it has become clear that Parisians have embraced this green line around their city.

As a landscape in limbo, it provides a place of residence for the homeless, a canvas for public art and a biodiversity corridor in the city. During my various visits I’ve come across groups walking the tracks and negotiating the long tunnels along the route, just like they would in any other park.

While it’s no longer possible to walk a continuous path along the line you can travel from the Northeast to the Southeast, without leaving the tracks – negotiating tunnels, stepping along the viaducts raised above the street that offer an elevated view – and then descending into the undergrowth that has reclaimed the tracks. Despite the appearance of being abandoned however, the railway remains part of the French National Railway, so a not so silent line after all.

This wild city thoroughfare presents a distinct urban experience – It’s the wild and overgrown sections that offer a more unique experience than the sanitised public parks that have been carved out of the tracks in the southwest of Paris. La Petite Ceinture remains an enduring presence in the city.

To find out more about the  Chemin de Fer de Ceinture, its history and current status, you should visit the website of the Association Sauvegarde Petite Ceinture. The association was established in the 1990s to safeguard the history of the line and to protect its future uses.

Paris Murs

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The walls of Paris provide an ideal canvas to showcase the work of street art. It’s an alternative perspective on the city.

I’ve been walking the same streets and re-tracing my steps countless times to observe the ephemeral and the permanent. While Mosko et Associés prowling tigers at Villa de L’Ermitage are long gone the urban tigers at Rue des Rosiers remain much as I first found them in 2006 – though someone has added ‘nature’s revenge’ over the original work.

As street art has become more popular, and sanctioned by local councils, walls can become shared spaces with regular ‘exhibitions’ to maintain a constant cycle of new work.

Some spaces remain permanent such as Mesnager’s homage to Matisse on rue de Menilmontant.

Then there are the spaces that incorporate the response of one artist to another, such as Mesnager’s overlays on the work of Nemo and Mosko et Associés.

The walls and the work continue to evolve and warrant regular visits.

I’m grateful to Kasia Klon who arranges street art tours in Paris and ‘Invisible Paris Walks’ for giving me a greater insight into what I see on the walls of Paris.

The artists whose work I have catalogued over the past years include;

Bernard Bellon

BMX ride in peace

Claude Feuillet 

Clet Abraham 

Jérôme Mesnager 

Ludo 

Mosko et Associé 

Mr Pee

Nemo 

Philippe Hérard 

Sobr 

Paris Lovelocks

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I first came across lovelocks on Pont des Artes in Paris in November 2011 and I’ve read countless blogs about the appearance and re-appearance of these lovelocks on paris bridges.

During my most recent trip to Paris in late November 2013 the lovelocks of Pont des Artes have transformed to form a wall of multi-coloured locks on the surface of the bridge – a pattern of little shapes declaring undying love and togetherness. As the real estate of the main bridge becomes oversubscribed the locks have found their way to the bridge approaches – and other bridges in Paris that provide a way to attach a lock.

As we look at the walls of locks the individual declarations of love and togetherness are lost in the crowd – its seems that with some the writing has worn off, or in some instances the declaration of love is for country or some other purpose.

The ever inventive tourist touts of Paris have found a new market of goods beyond the eiffel towers and I love Paris t-shirts. If you haven’t brought your own lock they will sell you one – and a marker pen to write your message… I wonder if the lock-makers are experiencing a shortage of supply?

The range of padlocks, bicycle locks and combination locks create a lovely pattern, encouraging a further layer of paint, graffiti and other artistic additions. Clearly some lovers come prepared with carefully engraved locks with strong colours to stand out from the crowd – or you could perhaps design a specific banner – like the fake paris street signs with lovers names inscribed. But of course you could always buy a lock if you need to…

When I lived in Paris in the late 1990s I remember the Pont des Artes as a public space for meeting up, having a picnic or just getting together. On a cold winter day in November it was full of tourists making photos against the walls of locks, attaching locks or making selfies of their locks before attaching them – somewhere – on the bridge.

 

Lovelocks

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I first came across lovelocks on a bridge in a small italian town, Cannobio on Lago Maggiore. Over a year later I found the Pont des Artes in Paris covered in a multi-cultural spread of padlocks offering public declarations of undying love. Always known as a meeting place for lovers it was something new to see a tapestry of locks spread across the wire barrier.

I’m told the tradition of inscribing names on a lock, attaching it to a bridge and throwing away the key to announce enduring love has a long history. It seems strange though to place so much faith in the common padlock to protect us from the vagaries of time and change that will always transform love.

Since my visit to the Pont des artes on a cold November day in 2011 the padlocks have multiplied has have the views of public authorities trying to find a way to manage the proliferation of lovelocks on their bridges.. The message on the green bin bag on the pont des artes suggests both vigilance and cleanliness…

Les murs de Paris encore

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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.

Les Murs de Paris

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Walking through Paris from the fashionable 8ème to the rapidly gentrifying old working class districts to the North & North East brings you across a variety of signs and street art on the walls – official & unofficial. This journey takes in the work of contemporary urban artists, Mosko et Associés, monuments and memorials to the city’s history, and the work of architects, builders and artisans who have left their stamp on the fabric of Paris.

This series, collected over several years, also reflects the impermanence of the urban space – murals can be repainted, buildings torn down, districts regenerated and urban improvements created.

One example is the ongoing renovation of Paris’ metro stations, where the plastic cladding walls from the 1970s are being stripped away – to reveal the original tiles and advertising hoarding from the beginning of the 20th century. These ‘improvements’ however can also eradicate more recent history – such as the murals at Abbesses metro now painted over in featureless white, returning the station to its ‘original’ condition. On a recent trip to Paris I also discovered that the prowling tigers in the Villa de L’Ermitage had disappeared – replaced by a uniform covering of gray paint.