Christmas 2014: the first and only time I have been in Paris.
It was enough to make me fall in love with this city. There are two things that impressed me more than others. 1st: in every corner, every street, every alley there is something visually striking. 2nd: everything is incredibly large and majestic.
During that trip I took many photos, many of which were the classic "postcard photos": well-studied composition, cured post production pixel-by-pixel, etc.
Beautiful images, surely. But also soulless. This time I did something different: I left my Nikon D800 in its bag and I documented the trip using my smartphone. Even the retouch, which is basically a simple B&W conversion, was made directly on the phone. For once, I wanted to put aside pristine image quality in order to highlight the feels I experienced in those 4 days. I opted for the black and white because it gives a certain "timeless" mood that I find really fitting in this kind of reportages. The result is this series of 120 photos. All the photos were taken with an iPhone 6. Keep in mind that I had to further downsize the resolution of the photos, otherwise this page would take forever to download! I'd love to know your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of the page! :) 15th of February
I arrived in the morning of the 15th of February after 10 hours of train, which departed from Milan at about 12.30 a.m.
As soon as I got out of the train station I just walked randomly for about an hour, I was very eager to check that area of Paris that I hadn't the chance to see 3 years ago. After a few kilometres it started to rain so heavily that I decided to go to the hotel to rest. The travel itself was quite tiring and the day before I did two photo shoots with freezing temperatures (with Felisya Piana and Dania Bazaiti) so when I reached my room (3p.m.) I just collapsed on the bed 'till the next day. 16th of February
Friday was the busiest day, after the long rest I was quite active!
Firstly I went to Notre Dame, which was fairly close to my hotel (Hotel Minerve) then I walked along the Seine until I reached the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, which became quite famous after its appearence in a few movies, including one of my all-time favorites: Inception. In the evening I met with my friend Alessia Noli for a drink and then I went back to the hotel. I think I walked a total of 15km, give or take. 17th february
Saturday I just relaxed: after walking till the Louvre courtyard I decided to spend some time there.
Under the sun the temperature was rather enjoyable, so I just sit there for the most part of the day enjoying the view and reading stuff on my phone. While on my way back to the hotel I bumped into a very cool restaurant (Les Deux Palais), where I ate one of the best Tagliatelle with Salmon ever! 18th february
Sunday arrived too quickly.
After the checkout I headed towards the Eiffel tower, where I waited for Alessia. It was the day we planned to shoot together but unfortunately she was feeling ill. Somehow she managed to meet me anyway, so we did a quick photo shoot on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim. Very quick. It was freezing and I had to catch the train soon, so we rushed it. Surprisingly enough the result came out nicely! After the shooting she accompanied me to the Gare de Lyon where I took the train to come back in Italy. I arrived at 6 a.m. in Milan then, after another ride to Parma, I finally got to the office ready to work my 8 hours shift. Needless to say, the weekend after I slept for 3 days straight! |
Luca Foscili is an italian professional photographer and retoucher specializing in portraiture. |
