Sunday, May 10, 2009

City of Blight ?

Paris, Gay Pareee, has been getting billed as the City of Light for ages now, the Romance Capital of the world, lit by the Eiffel Tower and the amazing array of artists who have walked its streets, where wine flows in the fountains, where shoppers stroll Elysian Fields, where "sous le Pont Mirabeau coule la Seine", and so on and so forth, Paris is a feast for the rich and famous, Paris is the biggest tourist destination in the world, Paris is, well, Paris.
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But like any large city today, Paris is not all champagne and caviar. Paris has a darker side, away from the famous lights, if one looks around a little bit. Both the below photos were taken in Paris, my title for them is : City of Blight . . . Paris has more than its fair share of poverty, drugs, and homeless people, or if not homeless, living in places like these two buildings . . . Your thoughts ?
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6 comments:

Lynne with an e said...

And yet they are managing to do their laundry.

The Sagittarian said...

You just KNOW that photo wouldn't be the same in colour! Great stuff.

wcs said...

I love these glimpses of some of the old stuff that still exists un-renovated in the city. While it makes for nice art, it's also a reminder of the fact that people actually have to make their homes there. L'envers du décor, as it were.

Steve said...

If you'd said that these photos were taken in 1942 I would have quite believed you...

Amy said...

Great telling photos...I'm sure they are not that far from the glamourous Paris that most of the world knows.

Owen said...

Steve, these pictures WERE taken in 1942, didn't I mention that I finally perfected my time traveling machine ?

Amy, you're right, not far at all... but then, for me, all of Paris is glamourous, these parts too...

WCS, that is the perfect term for it, l'envers du décor... merci pour ça... alot of my photo themes seem to run along the "envers du décor"... I'm not sure what Freud would say, but something does draw me to such visions as these... I wish I could have gone into the Hotel de Bordeaux, but the door was locked...

Sag & Lynne, thanks for dropping by, and the laundry is exactly what caught my eye too...