Tucked away in the North West corner of the Tuileries Gardens, at the rather splendid address of No 1, Place de la Concorde is a wonderful venue called "Jeu de Paume" which a centre for modern and postmodern photography. The building itself has an interesting history having been built in 1861 in the reign of Napoleon III to house real tennis courts, known in French as 'jeu de paume'.
Outside the Jeu de Paume
It has a colourful history being at one time a counting house for the Nazis and prior to its current use, was a centre to show impressionist art. Today it houses various exhibitions from photographers around the world. During my visit there were two major exhibitions namely those of Josef Sudek and Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreiege. Sudek's exhibition was called 'The World at My Window' and featured some 130 photographs from 1920 to 1976. Based in Prague, the evocative images portrayed scenes from Sudek's studio window and further afield which captured the differing effects of light on his subjects. He overcame the physical handicap of losing and arm to carry his large, heavy camera and tripod. Hadjithomas and Joreige's exhibition was called 'Remember the light' and featured an eclectic collection of pictures and short films portraying their Lebanese roots and the civil war. Another gallery I visited was 'Polka' in the heart of the Marais area of the city. This is a delightful venue and was established in 2007 by Adelie de Ipanema and her brother. There were two collections on show. Firstly there was Sebastian Salgado with 'The Tour de France' and secondly three Italian photographers, Ghirri, Giacomelli and Nori with 'Fratelli d'Italia'. The building was modern and minimalist with a further gallery in a yard behind the main studio. I dropped into the gargantuan Centre Pompidou which has a photography gallery in the basement. There was a fabulous collection on show from Louis Stettner called 'Ici Ailleurs' and I picked up a book featuring the photographs.
Unfortunately, due to the summer holidays several other galleries were closed at the time of my visit , most noticeably the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie and the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. This was supremely disappointing but taking something positive from it, it means that a return trip to this great city is on the cards.
Paris loves photography, is arguably the home of street photography and there are at least a dozen world class galleries to choose from. Our major cities in the UK could do worse than to copy them.