Slightly Nutty Street Photography

       Printed on the window of a bank, I had already noticed this giant billboard before. But nothing was really happening there, until this day when a worried woman passed in front. The scene immediately made me feel the full annoying hypocrisy of such ads.

       In the department store, this little boy was heading to a different place than his mom.  He blew her a kiss with the tip of his lips just before  disappearing in the escalators,  as if their steel jaws were devouring him.

     This scene shot at a flea market reminded me Stendhal's famous statement (in Le Rouge et le Noir) that a novel is a bit like a mirror carried along a road, sometimes reflecting blue sky and some other times reflecting mud puddles : "Eh, monsieur, un roman est un miroir qui se promène sur une grande route. Tantôt il reflète à vos yeux l'azur des cieux, tantôt la fange des bourbiers de la route". What Stendhal did not specify however is who are the muses carrying it. Maybe this photo brings an answer to that question.

      This sitted dad was holding his kid's ice cream in one hand, and his cigarette in the other. Getting a bit bored of waiting, he started to look at his reflection in the glass wall. Or at its beautiful sheaf of  cracks . Or maybe at both. 

     On this sidewalk, there were a lot of people  sitting on the terrace of a café. At first I noticed  the striped sweater of the girl on the right. But then the other one, slightly turning her face towards me, hugged herself very gently and I was captivated by such a beautiful gesture.

     Most probably the man was accompanying his daughter to a deguised birthday party. I did not want to be too intrusive by shooting them from the front. So I waited that they went past me. And then I realized that her angel wings were magnificent from behind, reminding me of the angels in the movie Der Himmel über Berlin by Wim Wenders.

     It had been weeks that I was wondering about this poster on the window of a  personal assistance company. Of course I got the meaning of the scene: a young helping lady, having fun with the old man she was helping. But all this seemed a bit exaggerated to me, and when a sad-looking man went in between I felt like the whole scene made sense at last.