Rue Becquerel

Okay, the shot is definitely beautiful. Strong atmosphere and a sense of time.

BUT, what it doesn't tell me is anything about Paris. I studied it and then I had

to look at the caption to understand where it was shot. Some of the

architecture made me think of Caribbean cities for a moment--the point being

that the shot abstractly captures a city at night and the mood of that city, but it

doesn't say "Paris" or "French" or even "European" to me. Then, the people:

this is just a personal gripe, but I don't like the fact that there's about one

"ghost" in the scene. It would have been a bit more eloquent to have had

more figures moving around to indicate some kind of activity happening.

Again, this is a matter of personal taste. The strongest points of this shot,

IMHO, are the lighting and the texture. As an black and white abstract, it's art.

As a travel shot, I think it's lacking--which is fine, because I'm not one for run of

the mill travel shots. I mean really, how many more stock shots of Paris do we

need? What Christian has done here is a bit deeper, and I like it very much.

I see no way that a single photograph can capture the soul of a big city.

Perhaps that is because I have yet to see one that does. This photograph is a

beautiful one, but it captures only a small aspect of a big city. This is a clean,

well lighted, geometric portion of the city. I would contend that this is such a

small aspect of city life so as to exclude it immediatly from being called the

"the soul of a big city." Then of course, this is my opinion of what city life is like,

which is more proof that a single photograph can not capture the soul of a big

city.

Buona ma non originale. Vedi la foto di Scanno, Abruzzo, ripresa da Carier-Bresson nel 1960. Il raffronto con un simle maestro dovrebbe farti flice. ugo

Approved by Ugo - English Translation from www.freetranslation.com: "Good but not original. You see the photograph of Seat, Abruzzo, taken again fromCarier-Bresson in 1960. The comparison with a similar teacher should do you good for your photo."

Excellent in all regards, but, to my American country-boy aesthetics, this is not Cartier-Bresson in *style* *although there may have been a similar *scene* -- yours is a wonderful, contemporary interpretation on a classic Brassai image. Technically and creatively excellent. Evocative. Bravo!!! Yee-haw!!!!

-Paul Chaplo (Texas)

I never critique photos on this site, but you have my attention with this image!!! Outstanding. -Paul

I don't know if it captures the "soul" of the city, because I'm not sure what that means (and I imagine that would depend on the city), but I immediately thought Paris when I saw this, so it certainly captured some kind of essence. In any case this I think this is a lovely picture and I agree with the nods to Atget and others. The black and white night scene works especially well to create a kind of melancholy and romantic euro-urban mood. And there is a formalism to the composition, the way the geometries of the architecture work together. I really like this. Wish I was there.

First off, Good photo and Congrats! No, I do not think a single photo can or could capture the soul of a big city no more that a single portrait could capture the soul of a person. A photographer would rarely discover the soul of a city by visiting it, they could however capture their interpretation of that city. To unmistakedly say this is Paris, New York or Amsterdam would be to have within the photo an Eiffle Tower or Statue of Liberty which could be boring or unoriginal. To use the icons of the great cities within the shots is one option. A street scene of a village restaurant including a yellow cab might have most viewers thinking it's NYC. The essence of a city is what visitors themselves take with them. Good travel city photography in my opion is to present a selection of shots which will clearly identify the city (even by one photo) and then show the essence or depth of your experience there (the weather, the streets, the people, the culture or the events and so on).

"...we would like to ask wheter a single photograph can truly capture the soul of a big city."

Yes. To me, this shot just screamed "Paris!" I love the city and I think you've captured it expertly, not just in this picture, but in much of the folder.

 

Ah, Paris.

if i am not wrong, this is MONTMARTRE. The very many streets have this view, and specially in the night, it is just beautiful. Originality is 2 as this has been shot many a times from the same view point. Aesthetics is perfect. But not exciting. In order to capture the soul of a city, there has to be something unique in the photo. there has to be the interaction of the people with the city. i dont see it here.

Hi Christian...

Great shot! The idea to make one photograph that captures the place where you are and the feelings you have while you are there is something that I try to do myself, and in this image you have succeeded well! To the naysayers who look for symbols such as the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge in order to capture the soul of a city, I say you are wrong -- you are only looking for visual crutches and cliches -- and they don't necessarily contribute to the soul of the city!

bob

One thing that struck me in Paris were the [seemingly] endless rows of incredibly tall buildings along relatively narrow streets, which I felt were quite overpowering. This is the memory that stayed with me all the years later, and this photo certainly reminds me of that particular characteristic. Nightlife was also very strong Paris, with busy street entertainers and sellers, and people spilling out of public cafes and bars onto the street, and with music and happy sounds carried in the air. The latter aspects of Paris are quite plainly not depicted in the photo, but this takes nothing away from the image itself for I believe it to be quite impossible to contain all the facets of 'The Big City' in one single shot. Perhaps a series yes, and Christian has almost covered it when you look at the rest of this folder. Perhaps a couple of hustle bustle street trader/entertainer shots would complete the collection (and maybe some of the traffic conjestion too), but otherwise he has shot some marvelous architecture, scenics, postcard, abstracts, and night lights of the city.

As Lex points out earlier, the layers of this photo add great depth and interest, as does the light and the motion blurred people. Congrats Christian, both on this weeks POW and on an enjoyable series of 'Paris Shots'.

I love city night shots!

Am I the only one finding myself disagreeing with all the Brassai comparisons? I mean, come on...Brassai's work is much edgier, darker, most sinister, more evocative...of something, anything...it reaches photography-as-artform, if not being art outright. This is technically a very fine shot, but there's nothing about it that to me makes it really stand out from a dozen other night cityscapes...I don't 'feel' anything looking at this shot, it doesn't stir anything within me.

There you are, have at it...

I like how the people are blurred from the 2s exposure

I do love this shot -- as I've previously commented on another of Tsotras' images, these 'step-streets' always remind me of the Bronx (as seen in a lousy record shot). There's nothing uniquely Parisian here -- it's a scene familiar to any very dense city built on hills. The image has a coziness that anyone who has lived in such a city would recognize: "it's a big city, but every hill is different, and this hill is home."

Great picture! Really captures the essence of a city at night. The blurred people are almost like ghosts or spirits. Also, they are moving, but the city remains untouched. Excellent job!

The elves want to know if a single photo can catch the soul of a city. Well I dont know, but a single photo can catch the mood of a city as seen here. This is a fantastic image full of life.

I'm with Andrew on this one. A good shot, but nothing otherwise remarkable considering the far, far better work in the rest of Christian's portfolio.

 

I shoot and sell a good deal of night work, and this one just lacks any 'feel' for me although the composition is quite nice. Perhaps the biggest problem with night photography is preventing it from becoming an exhibition of middle tones and otherwise a lack of real form or 'edge', which doesn't tell us anything about the place at hand. This is why so many of the most legendary and popular night shots are taken with push processed film because the increased contrast and lack of shadow detail gives a sense of mood. I've found Delta and the Tmax materials to nearly be worthless in this respect, and encourage Christian to stick with the Reala route.

First off to comment on this photo:

 

This is definitely an excellent shot, and people are complaining about the transparent people in the shot--to each his own. I think it adds a whole new effect to the photograph; sort of gives it an eerie, ghostly setting. Very nice work.

 

About capturing a city:

 

Sure it's easy to capture a whole city in a frame...but you're not really getting the "whole" city...if you follow what i'm saying. There are many different aspects to a city, that cannot be captured in a single photo.

As a beginner I will confine my comments to WOW! Hope I can capture a shot with this much skill someday.

'Capture the soul of a big city'? This seems an impractical goal to me, but also an undesireable one. It assumes that the purpose of a photograph is to provide answers (in fact, summaries, overviews, generalisations), rather than ask questions, which on the contrary should be as specific as possible. (I don't mean by this that urban photographers should concentrate on tiny details.)

The question is: whose city is this, whose Paris? Why here?

Even from the tumbnail on the homepage it was immediately clear that this is Paris. So yes a single picture can capture a lot of the soul of a city.

As to Scott's remark about more contrast, yeah he's probably right that high contrast material lends a certain mod/style to night pics tat makes good night shots, but I LOVE the tonality and 'glow' in this picture.

Puh-LEEEEEEEEEEEESE! A little more contrast!!

If you've seen the place once, you'll recognize it immediately, the picture not just makes you see it, it makes you feel it, sense it, hear it!! A wonderful shot! I tried to take a nice photo there but failed, but I'm glad I'm enjoying yours now!!!

Hi Christian, I really like your photo. For me it has a timelessness about it - it conjures up a 1940's pre-war feel. LOVE the blurred person. FAB photo - how can you go wrong in this wonderful city as well. Yes, you have captured Paris - you know it is Paris without even reading the title of the photograph .Regards, Helen