Paris is one of the most photographed cities in the world but you most probably must have lived there forever to see it differently, to take a visual side step from the clichés. Born into the profession, a street urchin who grew up in Pigalle, the photographer Nicolas Guilbert also an illustrator and painter has crossed his birthplace in all directions for thirty years to disclose its extensive visual treasures. In 2015, his book Unexpected Paris unveiled a very original and contemporary look at the beauty and rich history of the City of Light now on view in an exhibition in the Palais-Royal, in Paris.
The fruit of innumerable candid shots and an itinerary rich in surprises, Unexpected Paris is a subjective photographic journal and at the same time, an aesthetic manifesto but above all, a loving and humorous tribute to its inhabitants and visitors, the public and artistic life, and its monuments. Classical while contemporary, playful and joyous, these images collate dialogues from daily life, both unusual and moving, and zoom on situations that are always full of flavor.
One can here experience the animal within the urban environment, a favorite subject of Nicolas Guilbert but also strolling, so dear to writers Louis-Sebastien Mercier and Charles Baudelaire who wrote: “Parisian life is endowed with poetic and wonderful subjects. Marvels that shroud and irrigate us like the atmosphere that remains unseen”. Eternal words that are, without a doubt, an invitation to better discover the poetry of these images.
Nicolas Guilbert, Paris Paradis
Mid-January to end of march 2018
Galerie d’Orléans
Palais-Royal
8 Rue de Montpensier, 75001
Paris
France
