When I travel, I take very few photos.

I avoid “classic” photos of buildings (I can find some very beautiful ones on the internet, so why bother), and I don’t look for anything in particular: I walk around and wait. Look and feel the atmosphere of a place without knowing whether I’ll shoot or not. It’s obviously more comfortable to adopt the nonchalance of a tourist than the stressful demands of ordering a report. Much more comfortable, but also very risky since I don’t know what I’m going to see (and sometimes nothing). Nonchalance allows, with an empty mind, to let anything come: a light, a shadow, a reflection, an umbrella… I am usually minimalist, and so is the number of my photos.

This photo, taken in reflection in a shop window in Paris, seems to me characteristic of the atmosphere of the French capital, of its decor in any case since there is no one in the photo (except on the Place de la République, a little further).

In a city, I try to summarize what I can feel, not with a series but with a single photo. Hence the title “One Town, One Picture”. It would be too simple to take a characteristic monument of the city (here, the Eiffel Tower, for example), which is too simple and ultimately not very interesting. It is a difficult exercise that requires a lot of concentration because the city must be recognizable, but it is the atmosphere that must come first. The Haussmannian architecture of the buildings and the Art Deco metro entrance set the tone, and the neon lights of the perfume shop window give a touch of modernity and a certain idea of ​​Parisian elegance.

Of course, Paris is also the terraces and the small restaurants that are not shown. But if the image is sufficiently suggestive, you see them with your imagination and I will have the happiness of having shown them to you.

What are the TWO most impactful features that make your image a good photograph? Don’t be shy!

Reflection and light.

If you could make this photo again, what would be the ONE thing you would like to do better or different?

Back with the press shop open.

Jean Fraipont shared this photograph with the FRAMES Facebook Group.

Photographer

Jean Fraipont, Nivelles, Belgium

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