Peter Hendrie Photography - Paris Illuminated

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(Free-Press-Release.com) October 2, 2009 -- Paris, The City of Lights has been occupied by the Romans, from around 55BC, followed by the Franks. In the Middle Ages it flourished as a centre of religion, with amazing architectural marvels. Today Paris is one of the engines, which create art and lifestyle trends. The University of Paris attracts thirsty for knowledge cosmopolitans and shines with the rays of light of their minds.

Paris bloomed during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and as Louis X1V ruled this wonderful city- it became a synonym for wealth and power. Napoleon III and his préfet Haussmann have left their trail of good deeds in Paris as well- wide avenues and neo-classical facades of modern Paris, among which Champs-Élysées. “La plus belle avenue du monde” (“the most beautiful avenue in the world”) connects Place de la Concorde and Arc de Triomphe and is one of the world’s modern leading business and cultural centres.

At night the Iconic buildings of Paris- the Eiffel Tower, Sacré-Coeur, Arc de Triomphe, Musée du Louvre, Notre-Dame – are bathing in light, as are the numerous other avenues and ancient cobbled streets, which make up the 14 districts of the city. I have been blessed to spend many great Paris nights and we have felt the charm of this paradise on earth and there is no doubt that the name “City of love” is an accurate way of perceiving Paris. However, this is a sentiment, shared by many and who could resist the magic of evocative images from screen or print, which has formed our perception of this great city, particularly those stunning images of Paris portrayed at night.

Paris attracts over 30 million foreign visitors per year, which makes the City of Lights the most popular tourist destination in the world. Thinking about the amazing depth of history, the marvellous architecture and the diverse culture, makes it easy to analyze the facts. There are thirty-seven starching over the Seine and the oldest one is Pont Neuf. It is dated to the 16th century, whilst the latest edition Pont Simone de Beauvoir, opened as recently as July 2006.

Being photographically inspired in Paris is not only expected it is almost obligatory. This has been captured perfectly by Peter Hendrie in his new book “Paris Illuminated” This is the natural effect of those beautiful buildings and avenues. A great challenge is photographing these at night, and in the panoramic format. This one has a ratio of 3 to 1, almost identical to our natural vision. Peter has been working now, for a while in this format and yet some obstacles still had to be overcome. A great concern was coming from the fact, that shooting at long exposures (up till 10 minutes) meant the use of a sturdy tripod, dealing with flair, caused by excessive light entering the lens mainly off street or flood lights. The choice of the film had its own challenges as well.

Peter said avoiding the odd securities guards provoked some light-hearted moments, particularly around the Métro where Linda helped out, great result here. Without her some of the shots would never happen. Shooting at night didn’t pose lots of problems, especially with regard to people moving in and out of the scene, as they are rendered timeless due to the length of the exposure. A hard task was to find the desired locations and composition. This challenge had to be overcome in order to present a new, different way of seeing Paris, a city shot more times than I could even imagine. Peter’s goal was to make a series of photographs both evocative and stimulating which portrays Paris through the night, but also through a different pair of eyes, and has accomplished that.
Proceeding trough this book will bring you to the point of capturing how he has tried to vary his approach, with lots of photographs shot on a perverse angle. Feel free to experiment and observe few of those midges, rotating the book around its horizontal plain. He invites you to participate into the comprehension of his thoughts as well. More traditional approach to viewing these photographs would bring inspiration to the Viewer too.

More information can be found online at http://www.exmoor-whitehorse.co.uk/content/news/paris-illuminated.ashx

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