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Candid photography in Paris: My first great love in photography has always been candids, pictures of people, in the street, doing odd, unusual, interesting things, and portraits. Since I’ve been living in Paris I’ve been taking much more of the typically pretty “postcard” kind of pictures, suitable for coffee table books since there are so much more to take here, and because they sell well, all the better. But candid, street photography is still what holds my interest the most. Regardez cette page en français…

Go to the main index of photographs of Paris, or take a look at pictures of… All of these pictures are available as high-resolution TIFF scan files, and naturally, any of these pictures can be converted to black and white. Many others were taken at each photo shoot, so there are plenty of other choices if you don’t see exactly what you are looking for. Photography shoots can also be arranged in Paris and the surrounding regions…

Fire eaters: popular entertainment at festivals in France

Fire eaters performing on boulevard Saint-Germain during the fête de la Musique

 Sound and fury emanating from the mouth of a man taking chances

A fire eater at a street festival next to the canal Saint-Martin
The Waiters’ Race, where bar and restaurant waiters and waitresses ran an eight-kilometer marathon.

The Waiters’ Race: The day of fastest service ever

 A street festival on rue du faubourg Saint-Denis.

Acrobatics in front of porte Saint-Denis
In 2003, the parade was renamed, «la marche des fièrtes lesbienne, gaie, bi et trans», as it was felt that “Gay” was too restrictive of a term.

A participant in Paris’ annual Gay Pride parade

 Ambiance Merguez during the Fête de la Musique

Clouds of smoke rising from a barbeque during the fête de la Musique
The smell of merguez fills the air

A merguez vendor calms the flames with some water on boulevard Saint-Germain

 A man from San Francisco playing bass and singing the blues on pont Notre-Dame on a Sunday afternoon.

A musician on pont Notre-Dame
Naïé Dutrieux playing flute with two friends in front of rue du Trésor.

Flutists on rue Vieille-du-Temple

 Musicians playing accordions in the Fête des Vendanges parade on rue Caulaincourt, at the corner of rue Lamarck, October 11th, 2008.

Accordionists in the Harvest Festival in Montmartre
Agustina Mosca plays the didgeridoo just about every day in front of her bicycle on place du Centre Pompidou.

Agustina Mosca with her didgeridoo in front of the Pompidou Center

 A young woman playing the violin next to rue de Birague, with a graffiti poster of boxer Muhammad Ali behind her.

A classical musician playing in place des Vosges
The graffiti-covered wall in front of musician Serge Gainsbourg’s last apartment at 5 bis rue de Verneuil, where he lived from 1969 until he passed away in 1991.

Graffiti in front of Serge Gainsbourg’s home

 Manuel Abadie playing guitar on the bench that surrounds the fontaine Stravinsky.

Manu playing guitar next to the Pompidou Center
An Algerian woman playing a traditional North-African string instrument on place Georges-Pompidou.

An Algerian musician in front of the Pompidou Center

 Séverine Lavaux playing accordion on rue Azaïs next to Sacré-Cœur on a Sunday afternoon.

An accordionist in Montmartre
Hamid Aktouche playing the oud on rue Saint-Martin with the umbrella man behind him.

A musician playing the oud in front of the Pompidou Center

 Drummers greet visitors to the festival de la Musique, in front of the place de la Fontaine aux Lions

African drummers in front of the Grand Halles in parc de la Villette
A girl walking along the river Seine heads off into the Parisian sunset.

Walking along quai de l’Horloge, île de la Cité

 This 125 cc, four-cycle motorcycle gets 30 miles to the gallon and has a top speed of 43 miles per hour.

A Motobécane on rue Tardieu
Workers laying down those yellow lines that indicate that a parking spot in front of the restaurant “Le Jardin du Marais” is in fact a delivery zone.

Laying down parking space lines on rue du roi de Sicile

 Alexandre juggling with balls of fire in parvis de Notre-Dame. Alex won a 100,000 euro prize on «Incroyable Talent», a program on the M6 television channel in France, November 13th 2008.

Alex, the fire juggler in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral
A man weighing himself on boulevard Sébastopol

A man weighing himself in a pharmacy, boulevard Sébastopol

 A man preparing a bouquet of roses for sale in place de la République in Paris.

Flowers for sale in place de la République
A woman reading “La Croix”, a Catholic newspaper, in the park behind Notre-Dame Cathedral.

A woman reading behind Notre-Dame

 Nurse Clara offering back scratching on pont des Arts, a performance art project by Nili Blumberg.

Back scratching on pont des Arts
A woman slamming the table with her fist while talking on her portable telephone at a café on île Saint-Louis.

A woman slamming her fist on the table at the Saint-Régis café

 A middle-aged man hanging out on pont au Double with a Barbie doll handbag.

A man with a Barbie handbag in front of Notre-Dame
A mother with her two daughters pause for hot chocolate in the Café Montécao in the passage Perthuis at Café Montécao, 17–19 rue Saint-Paul.

Two girls with their mom in Village Saint-Paul

 Three women standing on a bench inside a bus stop at the corner of rue Lamarck, watching the Fête des Vendanges parade go by in Montmartre.

Four people watching a parade on rue Caulaincourt
An old woman walking out of Le Saint-Paul tabac in front of the Métro Saint-Paul exit.

An elderly lady in front of a tobacco shop on rue Saint-Antoine

 A woman sitting next to the entrance to the café de la Gare at 41, rue de Temple, looking at her portable telephone while smoking a cigarette; a little girl is looking back at her, seated a bit further beyond.

Two girls on rue de Temple
There are three guys with their cameras, a Pentax 6x7 cm film reflex, a pocket digital camera, and a Pentax digital reflex, and none of these three photographers have noticed the couple embracing on the park bench a few feet away from them.

Three photographers in square du Vert-Galant on île de la Cité

 A young woman with a chair taped on to the basket of her vélib (one of the “free” bicycles in Paris) at a red light at the corner of rue du Pont Louis-Philippe.

A woman with a chair on her bike on rue de Rivoli
A waiter drying glasses behind the bar at the Café Louis Philippe restaurant at 66, quai de l’Hôtel de Ville.

A bar man at the Café Louis Philippe

 A mother walking with her two children in a stroller past Philippe Gelot’s gallery at 29, rue Saint-Paul.

A mom walking with her kids on rue Saint-Paul
The people in the phone booth appear to be looking at classified ads, quite possibly for apartments. The woman on the second floor already has her lodgings

Two sets of people having phone conversations on rue de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève

 A man who has died his beard purple, in front the drinking fountain next to Notre-Dame.

A man with a purple beard in front of Notre-Dame
Jacky Cohen-Tanugi working on postcards in between visitors in place Georges-Pompidou.

An artist in front of the Pompidou Center

 A clown checking his makeup in a mirror while smoking a cigarette next to the Pompidou Center.

A clown next to the centre Pompidou
A typical Parisian newsstand on boulevard Montmartre

A typical news stand in Paris

 I sat next to this man for an hour while he spoke in tongues, delivering a full-on, stream-of-consciousness soliloquy on the French Revolution, and the significance of the Column of July

Place de la Bastille by night, opposite the Column of July
Pétanque is the French equivalent of the Italian game “bocci”, and the English game “bowls”.

Pétanque players at place de la Nation

 Rue de Lutèce on île de la Cité

An amusing sign near the palais de Justice
Red Cross, Green Cross: A graffitied street sign indicating a dead end with a black figure applied, seemingly crucified, on rue Aubry le Boucher, with the Pharmacie Première in the background.

Street sign graffiti on rue Aubry le Boucher

 A surveillance camera on the façade of the Crédit Municipal bank, next to the motto of the French Republique: «Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité»; “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”.

A surveillance camera on the Crédit Municipal in the Marais
A surveillance camera next to the slogan: «L’homme dans la société» (Man[kind] in society), on the façade of the headquarters of The International Order of Freemasonry «Le Droit Humain» at 5, rue Jules Breton.

A surveillance camera on the Droit Humain building

 Stranger wine on boulevard de Clichy, south side. In French «étranger» can mean “foreign”, or “stranger”.

Stranger wine: A weird translation in Paris
Fromage de chèvre translated as cheese goat on the window of the Bistrot des Halles. Usually we say cold cuts instead of charcuterie.

A cheesy translation on rue des Halles

 A highway construction sign warning that there are no traffic lights at the intersection of quai de l’Hôtel de Ville and rue Nonnains d’Hyeres.

A sign reading «absence de Feux» on Pont Marie
An abandoned bike locked up next to the Centre Pompidou turned in to a work of modern art by various pranksters.

A twisted bicycle next to the Pompidou center

 A vandalized “free” bicycle in the Vélib stand at place Marguerite de Navarre. The bikes are often vandalized by “working class” youths from the suburbs outside of Paris who are frustrated and irritated seeing all the taxpayer’s money the city of Paris is spending on its residents.

A twisted Vélib on rue des Halles
A vandalized blue bicycle locked up at the corner of rue Simon le Franc. There are very many bicycles in Paris, though luckily vandalism is not a big problem. Here, the vandals have creatively turned this poor bike in to a cyclops.

A deconstructed bike on rue du Temple

 A 1975 Honda CB750 Four K5 motorcycle next to the Centre Pompidou, painted in “Planet Blue Metallic”. Vehicles last a long time in Paris because the winters are so mild, thus one often sees rolling antiques in the City of Lights.

A Honda 750 Four next to the Pompidou center
A young girl holding a Barbie doll by the hair on a cold winter day with temperatures of 34°F on passerelle des Arts.

A little girl with a Barbie doll on Pont des Arts

 A sculpture and a young man looking at photos on a the back of a digital camera in the jardin des Tuileries. The statue, entitled «La Baigneuse se coiffant» was sculpted by Aristide Maillol in 1930, and was placed in the Tuileries Garden in 1964.

A statue and a man looking at pictures on a camera in the Tuileries Garden
A young man lounging in a chair next to the octagonal basin on west side of the Jardin des Tuileries.

A man basking in the sun in the Tuileries Garden

 One of the woman who spend their days in parvis de Notre-Dame approaching people, asking if they speak English.

A Gypsy beggar in front of Notre-Dame
A middle-aged couple behind a news stand with a poster advertisement for an article in Marianne magazine: «Faites l’amour comme les bêtes!».

A man and woman behind a news kiosk on rue Saint-Martin

 Claude Singeot smoking cigarettes in the show he puts on in front of the Centre Pompidou.

A man smoking five cigarettes in front of the Pompidou Center
An older woman scrutinizing the other side of an advertisement for Somatoline, a cream that threatens to take two centimeters off your stomach and abdomen in four weeks while you sleep.

A woman studying the back of a man in an advertising picture

 A police officer reviewing the work of an amateur photographer in Parvis Notre-Dame. The policemen had just arrested some musicians in front of the church, and the dozens of people gathered in the square had taken pictures.

A policeman looking at a tourist’s pictures in front of Notre-Dame
Show biz brings out the worst in some people

Some friends of mine

 L’un porte un casque, l’autre la tête nue

Two men at place de la Bastille
This kid appears to be with a tour group, if so, it’s hard to believe the group’s leaders allowed him outside with this T-shirt on.

A teenager on rue Norvins in Montmartre

 A young man eating a hot dog at the corner of rue Vieille du Temple and rue Roi de Sicile. He is participating in a great tradition in France, «L’enterrement de vie de jeune garçon», the burial of the life of a young boy, his bachelor party. In this rite of passage people spend the day making complete, utter fools of themselves with their friends, in public.

A man about to be married in the Marais
Another picture I took from the waist, without using the viewfinder.

An habitué of boulevard Saint-Michel

 A homeless man sleeping in front of Notre-Dame with a book entitled, «Dictionnaire des difficultés de la langue française» (Dictionary of the difficulties of the French language), by Adolphe V. Thomas. Dozens of people were gathered around him, feeding sparrows and he slept through it all.

A man sleeping with a book about the difficulties of the French language
How much damage can be done to an automobile with one’s bare hands?

A woman doing her best to destroy an automobile

 Family resemblances?

A sister with twins
One sidewalk, two moods

A friendly wave

 I took this right after a demonstration had gone through the square

Canine human communication, place de la République

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Jetlag and culture shock: Read my thoughts on what it is like taking pictures in Paris

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Photography workshops in Paris: Learn the secrets behind these pictures!

Portraits in Paris: with your family, friends and loved ones in the City of Lights, and the famous monuments of Paris in the background.

See the pictures I took on a trip through Alsace-Lorraine, France

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Take a look at the pictures I took on a trip through Switzerland

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All images are © 2013, David Henry, all rights reserved. Written permission is required for any use.