Monday, March 17, 2008

Tit for tat!


I also took this photo Saturday, a little before the anti Scientology demonstration started. I was sitting at a restaurant terrace enjoying a Caesar salad (yes, some French restaurant have Caesar salad on their menu!) when I saw the clown you can see in the background of the photo. I grabbed my camera, zoomed in and discovered that this guy was actually taking a photo towards my direction. We exchanged glances through our lenses and could not help smiling. I bet he has a photo of me in his camera!

86 comments:

  1. Great B&W photo Eric! Paris always looks good in B&W, and this could be from any era!!

    Katie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love the black and white picture, Eric! Like a look back in time!

    Keep up the great work!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love this photo Eric. It has a feel of old school.
    Katie congrats on the GF

    ReplyDelete
  4. hi
    i clicked on the link cos i love france and all things french...except snails and andoiullette (sp?) and now i love your photos...thank you
    j'aime beaucoup vos photos, merci
    a bientot
    la paysanne

    ReplyDelete
  5. You mean this is his photo of you, Eric, is this your new profile pic?.............only kidding LOL!

    I adore this pic. You seem to achieve the black and white shots really well Eric. I must practise more. There is nothing in the photo to give away that this is present day. It's very amusing this man was taking a photo of you. I did predict it though, didn't i. I said only a few days ago that soon you will not be able to walk the streets without people photographing you. It's happened! Ok this today, next it's a double-page spread in HELLO! you famous person you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Monkey see - Monkey do" is another saying we have for "tit for tat".

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like this picture! A famous scene : L'arroseur arrosé.
    The B&W make it really nice.
    Which garden/park is it?

    Lynn give up, is not going to change his picture profile. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. It really does look as if he is spying on you. Much better subject than the clown. Clowns freak me out.

    ReplyDelete
  9. what about the little girl on the RHS of the picture? i wonder what she is thinking!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love this picture it is always neat to see what you come up with. I like the fact that the guy is taking a picture towards you and even though he was your new subject you still have your old subject, the clown in it. As for Jemima I wonder what she is thinking too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. LOL, maybe there's another Paris Daily Photo blog out there somewhere! Too funny :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. It looks like the pattern on his tie is bookshelves! I like the picture, but I'd love a tie with bookshelves!

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a photo!

    Two things make this one of my favorites, Eric: it's technically a great photo, and it's essentially Parisian.

    The B&W, the hats, the three main people and their graduating heights, even the fact that he's taking a picture of something other than the clown, where all that activity lies...all serve to make it technically interesting.

    And though I'm like From Cali and clowns freak me out, too, a clown show in the park seems so very Parisian.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love the black and white... and the composition of this photograph. Reading your blog gives me a different perspective of what I want to see- and how to see it- when I go to France...

    ReplyDelete
  15. I do love this photo, Eric, for all the reasons others have stated. It reminds me of a great photographer whose name escapes me at this moment, of course! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. A third person from Californie checking in to say that clowns also flip me out, especially tall ones with cameras! Be careful, Eric!

    Curious to know whether Parisian Caesar salads come avec ou sans les anchovies?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Love this photo Eric, there's much about this scene that keeps one coming back and seeing more. It seems like an old photo, but the children are dressed more present day. I like how the little girl is looking from the background, as the man in the photo focuses his camera on you, taking a picture of him. :)

    Petrea, too funny about the clowns, like from Cali, freaking you out. My son who like lives in Boston was upset that I "dragged him to that clowny place in Sarasota" Ummmm, I thought the Ringling Museum was quite nice. I guess I'm kind of a Carnytown girl and would love to see the circus clowns in Paris. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  18. such an interesting question of perspective, how funny :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Ahaaaa maybe you were caught... Maybe he starts a "Following Paris Daily Photographer"- blog ...lol...

    Listen, Eric, hope you don't mind if I have you linked at my brazilian blog... In fact I wrote a post (in portuguese- if you want I can translate it to you by mail) indicating your site as a nice discovery... and intend to have your blog listed among my favourites is that allright?

    ReplyDelete
  20. un tres bon photo, merci

    je suis allee a Paris en 2001; je voudrais y aller encore.

    avec ce photo, je sens comme je y suis.

    ReplyDelete
  21. What an interesting looking chap in a very striking hat and trench coat. I just wonder what the image of you looked like when his lens shutter opened.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Superb photo, Eric!

    Mme. Benaut: The trenchcoat and hat struck me, too. I was reminded of all those iconic Frenchmen - both real and fictional - whose trademarks they have been: Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Tati, Jean-Paul Belmondo (in "Breathless" and "The Finger Man") and, of course, Alain Delon (in almost every film he made with Melville).

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oh oh. If you look closely at the books on his tie you can see that most of them are written by L. Ron Hubbard.

    By the way, I wonder what that weird outline around the photogapher is all about.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Tall Gary: Mmm, judging by the uniformity of the blurred background, I'd put my money on some "tweaking" in Photoshop, but I could be wrong. Not that there's anything with a little tweak. After all, even analogue photographs are manipulated in the developing process in order to produce the desired effect.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I didn't realise that there were so many people afraid of clowns! What's THAT about?

    I can't put my finger on it, but this photo looks like he's maybe a private investigator to me.

    And TANYA! How dare you suggest that there could be another Paris Daily Photo?!?!?! That would be considered a sin here!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Michael: I'm not sure why some people find clowns so freaky, but I do know there's a word for it: coulrophobia.

    ReplyDelete
  27. allo

    i love your pictures...
    just found this page..

    warm regards

    ReplyDelete
  28. Thanks Lucio! I found this link to Coulrophobia also. I find it somewhat bizarre, but guess everyone's afraid of something.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Michael: My pleasure!

    Although I've never been afraid of clowns, I do find them a little creepy. Cindy Sherman, the contemporary American photographer, captures what can only be described as their "uncanniness" in a recent series that I find particularly bizarre and unsettling:

    "Cindy's Creepy Clowns"

    Just for the record, I'm an arachnophobe.

    ReplyDelete
  30. How adorable. I'll keep a look out for a picture of your looking through a camera.

    ReplyDelete
  31. i found your page browsing, its really interesting, made me feel like i was on holiday, it really cheered me up because we've had some terrible weather in england this week !

    ReplyDelete
  32. I know that Carrie in 'Sex and the City' is afraid of clowns. I'm not bothered by them but i had to send one home once; i'd hired him for my son's birthday and a third of the little guests hated him. He went home early with a party bag and a wasted cheque.

    The photographer's clothes are somewhat dated. It's like Eric planted him there from another era. Only his backpack is up to date. A very interesting character to find, Eric. Or... did he find you? Brr.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Ah, Photoshopping. Eric has a good eye for that as well. Thanks Lucio.

    And for the term coulrophobia. I don't know that it is to the degree of an irrational fear but I have always thought of clowns as creepy. The discrepancy between image and reality. But what are you going to do? To have spent such a part of one's adult life watching the beautiful trapeze artist or lovely bareback rider go off arm in arm with the strongman or lion tamer. What else can one do but paint on that long-ago, heart-ache obliterated smile.

    Or the image itself, no discrepancy involved. That is some "Collection of Evil Clown pictures" at the bottom of Michael's Wikipedia "Coulrophobia" link.

    Who would ever choose the clown?

    Just thinking of a scenario:
    "Oh baby. Thanks for waiting with your arms folded, scuffling impatiently around the sawdust on my dinky trailer floor while I gaze at myself in the mirror trying to get this gunk off my face. Can you hand me that quart of mineral oil? I'll be ready to hold you in my arms and cover you with kisses within a half hour.

    "You can wake up now. I'm finished.

    "What do you mean take off my shoes before I get in bed? I'm not wearing clown shoes anymore. Those are my actual feet."

    ReplyDelete
  34. I hope to someday visit your lovely city for real...until then, thanks for "taking me there".

    ReplyDelete
  35. Aw sorry Michael,lol. Of course no other pdp could compete!

    As for the fear of clowns, I don't get it? I think there's regular real people out there that are 10x more freaky than any circus or rodeo clown,lol.

    ReplyDelete
  36. love B&W pics. this is indeed parisian. beautifully captured.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Did you notice the lion's head next to the Wallace fountian?

    ReplyDelete
  38. I Love all your fotos, but this one is...Amazing!!!

    ReplyDelete
  39. I wonder if he also has a blog?!!!
    Ah ah ah!!! Yu made me laugh!!!

    ReplyDelete
  40. I love this shot - worthy of Cartier-Bresson himself.

    Your subject could be Monsieur Hulot in that raincoat!

    ReplyDelete
  41. The real question is: what were you wearing, Eric? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  42. That sure wouldn't happen very often taking a picture of oneanother,would it?

    ReplyDelete
  43. great pic! thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  44. For a long time I've thought that the French were arrogant and self-centered and now you've proven me all wrong. And I'm glad.

    Everybody has always said that one day they want to go to Paris and I've never understood them. What's so special about the Eiffel Tower or the Mona Lisa...

    But these pictures... They're nothing like the usual sightseeing-photos and I think they really show the real Paris. The only things I have truly wanted to see in Paris are the Curie Institute and the Curie Museum and also rue Pierre Curie. (hint-hint) (Yes, I'm addicted to physics and the Curie-family)

    Your pictures are so... real, if may say. They really make me feel as if I were there. The black-and-white photo(s) are especially good.

    I guess I should wrap it up now. This is actually the first blog that I have seen, that has a point and I think I'll start coming here regularly.

    Eva-Maria (Estonia)

    ReplyDelete
  45. This is appropriate and timely. I was viewing some Cartier-Bresson photos yesterday at the Mpls. Inst. of Arts.

    Now, as to the Scientology demostration: this other photographer may be one of them, seeking out people spying on them. Watch out! It's the next chapter of the microfilm in the park transfer novel. Remember a few months ago on PDP?

    Happy St. Patrick's Day to those on the Green Isle. May you be in heaven an hour before the devil knows you've died.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Love the B&W...does remind me of an "Inspector" Clouseau type. How's the weather in Paree? Looks cold.

    ReplyDelete
  47. What a gorgeous photo and such a great "inside joke" :)

    ReplyDelete
  48. Love your blog, love the photos and love Paris! Spent one night there flying on to Ukraine. I thought it would be an overrated tourist trap with rude people. It was gorgeous, the people were normal and not rude even when I tried my bad French and I was IN LOVE! I will stop back by!

    ReplyDelete
  49. Monica you were telling us the other day about how Brazil girls love to dress; WELL!!! You simply have to go to M et Mme Benaut's at Adelaide Daily Photo, to be redirected from there to Menton Daily Photo. I see what you MEAN!!! Gosh.

    ReplyDelete
  50. I hope you get a chance to come over and see me wearing my blog wig, Eric. You might get a laugh out of it. Some others have. LOL

    I like your photographer's photographer posted today too.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Trust me when I don't get effusively praising often, but I LOVE this photo, it's so evocative and yet playful.

    You should definitely print and frame it.

    ReplyDelete
  52. hehe magnifique!

    if i was that guy, i'd probably say,
    "oh la la!!! he's taking a photograph of me just like i'm doing right now! better look good!"
    hehehe

    i could do some good laughs!

    :]]]]]]]

    ReplyDelete
  53. This is a fantastic shot. Great how the backgroung is out of focus and yet so in context. Reminds me of Doisneaus photos.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Lynn you got the idea. I bet you can easily picture me wearing something like that. That's me going to the beach, plataforms and tassels all over. And some feathers in my hair too.

    As if...

    You better ask Michael what a Girl from Ipanema looks like. He knows very well, I'm sure he can describe to you. She doesn't look like a carnival parade, she's more bossa nova style.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Lovely, Monica. No i knew you'd never look like that, much better! Ipanema, there's a famous model from there right? It's in the back of my mind but can't recall the details.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Lynn most famous brazilian models come from the south of Brazil, like Gisele Bundchen. From Ipanema there is the real girl from Ipanema, the one that inspired the song. I said Michael could tell you all about her because he just learnet that she's real and was very surprised.

    He even offered to sing Girl from Ipanema to you guys during the next picnic... he he

    ReplyDelete
  57. Eric I just got a "I heart Paris Daily Photo" mug from Zazzle!!!

    It was a gift from - guess who - Phx of course!!! I'm in love with it. Now I have 2 PDP mugs.
    Oh and also the button you gave me last year!

    I bet Phx is helping increase your sales at Zazzle!

    ReplyDelete
  58. lol i know it. That's the one i was thinking of! Trust Michael. Pah. lol.

    ReplyDelete
  59. guillemette was not eric in a cafe near the sorbonne entrance of the luxembourg park - the foutain rings a bell
    another uestion what is the nationality of the person with camera french swiss german i can t see ..

    ReplyDelete
  60. Cue deep voice : " TOM CRUISE SCIENTOLOGIST ! "

    ==Alaska

    OH no , Tom and his cult are going to track me down ;-)))

    PS : I'm Tom Cruise

    ReplyDelete
  61. Hi everyone. Sorry not to be very active in the comments box these days, but I have too excuses: 1) I have a lot of work at the moment, 2) Pollens have started to attack and I suffer from bad allergies which kill me.

    It won't last, please forgive me;)

    But I'm glad you enjoyed this photo, cause I like it very much too ;)

    ReplyDelete
  62. Everyone in - and behind - this photograph is disguised: the background figures by the soft focus, the clown by his costume, the photographers (yes, Eric, I do mean you) by their cameras. I like that. Indeed, it seems apposite that we only half glimpse their identities, as this is explicitly an image about the making of an image. I like that, too.

    ReplyDelete
  63. I stumbled across your blog, and thoroughly enjoy the photos and your point of view! I was in Paris twice last year and could not get enough of the city! J'adore les photos!

    ReplyDelete
  64. Wow. The lion head in the pattern of leaves by the Wallace Fountain! Thanks anonymous. This photo is building as much drama as Antonioni's movie "Blow Up."

    ReplyDelete
  65. Anonyme, I would like to understand what you're talking about but I don't...

    ReplyDelete
  66. There is no doubt that Eric used the gaussen blurr filter in Photoshop. The give away is the halo around the man's hat.

    I also like the library shelf of books tie.

    It looks like that may be a very expensive Leica SLR the gentleman is using. The mark of a very wealthy tourist. I know of no pro who uses Leica SLr equipment. Maybe old M2 and M3's, but not their SRLs.

    The photo is still very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  67. I wish I found this blog sooner, these are fantastic snapshots of Paris. Can't wait to see more! ;D

    ReplyDelete
  68. I love this shot, timeless and comical. This site is far too addictive. Stops me doing my won blog and photography,by perusing this one. think it should could with a health warning.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Brilliant! Could not have been better timing, lighting, and the black and white sets the stage! :)

    ReplyDelete
  70. I like this picture very much. I looked at it and thought the background looks quite nice, with this old woman looking a bit like a clown.. then read and found out it's a clown.. :)
    love your blog (not only the pics but also your comments)

    ReplyDelete
  71. I have to agree with Anonyme who entered a comment at 6.26 a.m. I think it's okay to touch up shots, but there seems to be a thin line all around the photographer shown. I hope it's just to add a gaussian blur. And yes, I think it is a Leica he's using.

    Good photo anyway!

    ReplyDelete
  72. Eric,
    This photo is an instant classic! The figures are somewhat timeless and could be from any of several decades. The composition is perfect, and the black and white treatment has made this one of my fave pictures of yours of all time. Would that we could see his capture of you at the cafe! Please be sure to Zazzle this one!
    Kudos!
    -Kim

    ReplyDelete
  73. Super - breathtaking - c'est rare de voir de photo en noir et blanc et ceci on plus d'effet. Merci de partager ces photos avec nous.

    ReplyDelete