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Looking into (the) COSMOS with the James Webb Space Telescope

This is why in @cosmosastro we are keeping our fingers crossed for the launch of @NASAWebb ! #JWST @astrocaits @astroIAP @DAWNCopenhagen

With the imminent launch of JWST — we hope! — I am resurfacing an article I wrote earlier this year which appeared in a different form on the IAP front page. Next year I will be giving a public conference about this which will be streamed live. Astronomers learned to read the patterns of stars in the starry night skies as clues to the shape of our own Milky Way. Powerful telescopes soon showed…

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#COSMOS

Images in the 21st century: some comments on Andre Rouillé's: "La photo numerique, une force neo-libérale"

Images in the 21st century: some comments on Andre Rouillé’s: “La photo numerique, une force neo-libérale”

I recently read an excellent book about photography in the 21st century, Andre Rouillé’s ”La photo numerique, une force neo-libérale”, published by editions “L’échappée” (who are publishing many interesting books about society and technology). It is probably the most lucid text about modern images I’ve read so far: to me, it describes accurately the current state of affairs. Most classic texts…

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#Books #film photography

Reading Don DeLlio's "The Silence "

I’ve been reading DeLillo’s books for a long time now. The first time I heard his name was when I struck up a conversation with a man on a train in England at the end of the 1980s. He told me that I should really read DeLillo. But it was not until I was a summer student in New Mexico in 1991 that I came across White Nose and its ”airborne toxic event”. And then Underworld when it was published in…

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#Books #DeLlio #Paris

Bob Giraud's Le Vin des rues and Patrick Cloux's Au grand comptoir des halles

Reading Bob Giraud in lockdown #vindesrues #Paris #Giraud

There is a certain segment of time and space here in Paris that fascinates me. It’s that period just after the second world war. Now, a few months ago, just before the portcullis gates swung down (on st. Patrick’s day of all days) I bought Robert Giraud’s Le Vin des rues. A few weeks before that, I discovered by chance the “Librairie Le Piéton de Paris” and following the excellent recommendations…

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#Paris #Reading Bob Giraud in lockdown vinderues Paris Giraud

In Paris, Confined.

In Paris, confined.

During the confinement I went out almost every morning for a walk and to buy some bread. I took my cameras with me. There was often beautiful sunshine. I like that low light and the way it shines on the buildings.

And on the streets,

A walk up the steps …

The street of the (alcoholic) artists

..and you could be sure that at that early hour, there would only be a few joggers. You didn’t see…

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#Leica #Paris #photography #triX

"An apocalypse with French characteristics"

A dispatch from #Paris in the time of the #coronavirus

You see, a few weeks ago, I had invited friends and family from the four corners of the globe to come to Paris for my birthday at the end of the month. Of course, I didn’t expect that the celebrations would be disrupted by a full-on Earth Abides-type situation, but that is precisely what has happened. I didn’t expect that that little protein-coated bundle of RNA straight outta Wuhan (only 20,000…

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#corona #Paris

In Heidelberg

I have just returned from a short trip to Heidelberg. Looking back at what I wrote the last time I was there I see that my concerns haven’t really changed at all (and stay tuned for my next post). And I discovered there is at least one person who reads this blog ! So I will try to post a little more.

Deep in the fog

This time, I was in town for a Euclid meeting on the mountain, in the forest,…

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#night photography #Travel

Andrée Chédid, « Destination : arbre »

This lovely text appeared on the exam scripts of millions of French students yesterday:

Parcourir l’Arbre Se lier aux jardins Se mêler aux forêts Plonger au fond des terres Pour renaître de l’argile

Peu à peu S’affranchir des sols et des racines Gravir lentement le fût Envahir la charpente Se greffer aux branchages

Pu…

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52 photographs (2018) #52: In the garden #Paris #Versailles In the garden

#52 photographs

52 photographs (2018) #51: Ancient light

The Rolleiflex 2.8C that my friend Mr. Seagull ‘loaned’ me on such generous terms came back from repair, just in time for the Christmas break. It was made some time in the early 1950s. After being thoroughly serviced at Photo Suffren it was fully returned to working order. I had had been plagued by randomly blurry images which in the end had nothing to do with focus (how could that go wrong on a…

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#52 photographs

52 photographs (2018) #50: Jesus Mary and Joseph: in the window (2)

52 photographs (2018) #50: Jesus Mary and Joseph: in the window (2) #Paris #Leica

In Ireland, of course, “Jesus Mary and Joseph” is not an enumeration, it’s an exclamation. And yes I know this is the St. Therèse. Another strange Parisian shop window somewhere near the Salpé. Thankfully there are still a few of these left in Paris.

Jesus Mary and Joseph

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#52 photographs #Paris

52 photographs (2018) #49: Let's get out of here: in the window (1)

52 photographs (2018) #49: Let's get out of here #Paris #Leica

Another walk around on an overcast Sunday afternoon with strange lighting. More pictures of Montsouris, which I won’t show here, but there are some good ones. Instead, this. There are so many strange things one can find in the windows around here, if one looks…

Let’s get out of here!

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#52 photographs

52 photographs (2018) #48: In Nice

So it is my first trip outside Paris for months, to Nice, for two short meetings. Well, we visited sumptuous palaces. I spent a day in a meeting in Nice Observatory with spectacular views over the bay of Nice. But this is my photograph for that week. I kind of like the sinister pointless nature of that notice. Ball games forbidden. Who’d have thought?

In Nice

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#52 photographs

52 photographs (2018) #47: A moment of beauty

Now here in this one I am wandering the streets of Passy which used to be a remote unwashed suburb that impoverished writers like Balzac exiled themselves to. But today, ach, it is full of wealthy ladies in fur coats with small dogs. But… what’s this?

A moment of beauty

He’s not on the telephone, but he is not combing his hair, it seems…

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#Paris #Passy

52 photographs (2018) #46: Push here?

At a certain academic institution, not far from the IAP, the signs are contradictory.

Push here?

You’re certain?

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#52 photographs #Paris

52 photographs (2018) #45: The frame within the frame

It’s often been remarked that photography is easy — you just point the camera and click the shutter. But yes, just where do you point the camera and whendo you press the shutter? Looking through the viewfinder of a camera like a Leica is wonderful because it makes this choice obvious — provided you have chosen the right focal length for your viewfinder, looking through the eyepiece you see a…

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#52 photographs

52 photographs (2018) #44: From the window

The 31st of October: a minor (expected) outpatient operation and I’m confined to the house once again. In the days that follow I don’t go further than a few hundred metres from here. Of course there is a long photographic tradition of such confinements. Kertesz photographed constantly from his window. And poor Josef Sudek spent decades photographing his house and garden.

From the window

From our…

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#52 photographs #Paris #Rene Coty

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