Paris in the Fall

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 Earlier this fall we arrived in Paris to speak about Cinemagraphs at FLOW, shoot for MTV House of Style, and attend Carine Roitfeld’s Le Bal, but before all the events and shoots we took a few days in Paris to live quietly, eat simply, and walk the streets with no purpose but to see through the eyes of a Parisian.

I think of these images as postcards brought back to be shared

From Me To You…

Kissing in Paris is a must, the sparkling Eiffel Tower always steals my heart, the first time I went to Paris it was just as magical, Paris & Polaroids just go hand in hand, I wish we had their cafe culture, and in my memories it looks something like this….

I love dressing in Paris, I feel more like myself here than in any other city of the world. Classic, simple, chic… weekday outfits & weekend outfits & friendship was well documented.

I also have the great pleasure of being a Jimmy Choo 24:7 Stylemaker so many of my Paris fashion moments, like above, were made more glamorous with amazing Choos.

My wonderful hat designer friend Satya Twena was living in Paris this past summer and let us borrow her Vélib cards, Paris’s public bike system, which easily became our favorite way to move around the city. My favorite memory was the night of Kevin’s birthday we left Le Bal at 2am, hopped on bikes and found a cafe open where we sat outside sipping champagne and having a late night meal before riding home on an empty Paris night.

 

On one of those unplanned nights that turns into an adventure we found ourselves at an old small club where the drinks were strong and the music was haunting.

 

Bonjour Paris!

55 thoughts on “Paris in the Fall”

  3. wow! I looooove your photos! it has been a long time that I haven’t seen such a wonderful b&w pictures! you really make me feel as I was walking around the autumnal city.
    kisses from Barcelona!

  8. My god, Jamie, these capture Paris perfectly. I am dying to get back. I have such fond memories sharing a bottle of wine and enjoying French cheese at Cafe de Flore with my father. It is a truly magical place. These pictures…I can’t get over them. Wow.

        1. Oh gosh – no, she’s not a photographer but she worked with a couple of the Magnum guys back in her hotshot graphic design days. Ha! She would have been a great one though!

  12. You and your art work are so inspiring! I hope that one day I will as fortunate to travel to all of the beautiful places that you do. Thank you for sharing the beauty that you capture!

  13. Dear Jamie,

    These are such beautiful images of Paris! You can really get lost in their romanticism. I really appreciate that you shoot so much film and was equally taken by their technical beauty/mastery— I was wondering if you would kindly share some of your methods? First: what developer combination do you use with the tri-x to get such rich contrast and at the same time detailed highlights/shadows. Second, What is you metering strategy? Do you meter off the shadows, mid tones, or highlights? Do you use the zone system? Oh, and the images that were shot indoors/on the train are you using a flash? Lastly, thank you for sharing your fabulous work, it’s truly inspiring.

    1. Thanks so much for your comment.
      I used to process B&W film myself and when I did I would use D-76 developer. I always try to meter off of an area of the photograph that looks close to 18%gray and then I over expose it just a touch. Basically I make sure I don’t meter off the brightest or darkest point of the photograph and I don’t take an average meter. A lot of photographers I know just carry around a light meter to guarantee the shot. For these photographs I never used a flash, it is all ambient light.
      Hope that helps!!

  20. These are beautiful photos, Jamie! Wish I was there right about now, but instead sitting in class in very, very cold Scotland. Love the black and white and flowers, champagne and beautiful architecture. Well captured 🙂

  24. You have truly captured what makes Paris so beguiling. Thank you for sharing your beautiful art. I love the story about riding around Paris on a bike in the middle of the night.

    1. I have all different types of film cameras, for this series I used a 35mm Pentax honeywell spotmatic, the camera I first learned photography on. Similar to any 35mm manual film camera, you can get Pentax K1000s very inexpensively. Just have to make sure the shutter works and there is a battery. 🙂

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