Pigs On the Hook !

On a summer day in 1986 Thierry Dupety and myself set out, cameras in hand, to go visit the huge meat packing warehouses south of Paris in the town of Rungis. We both took numerous photographs that day (this is one of mine), illustrating man's inhumanity to lesser creatures... one could rightfully ask after seeing an image like this ; why are people such pigs... to pigs ? But then again, on the other hand, I do like a good piece of bacon in the morning with my eggs... so I guess this is the price for that.

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Flat Cat ! signed Thierry Dupety

First : This photo was taken and sent to me by my good old friend and source of inspiration Thierry Dupety who is one of the most marvellous frenchmen you could ever want to meet. He has a wonderful sense of humor, a fine eye for photography, excellent talent for directing films, and great taste in wine and restaurants. He has travelled and photographed widely, as well as producing short advertising films, some of which are on the site linked to here. I met him while we were both living in Paris way back in 1986, and he was a major source of inspiration to me when I was an inexperienced young photographer. Now I'm an inexperienced older photographer, and he still continues to amaze me. Another website here has some info and a photo of Thierry...
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Second : The photos posted below in earlier postings, and this one, of roadkill victims, are not taken or posted on this blog out of some prurient, macabre, ghoulish desire to shock anyone, or to demonstrate voyeuristic compulsion on my part. Roadkill is one of the saddest phenomenons of our times, where hordes of humans race about blindly in murderous machines known as automobiles, consuming vast quantities of oil, and, sadly, massacring vast numbers of beasts who were not nimble enough to get out of the way in time. If even one person slows down slightly when driving through areas where there may be animals crossing the road, after having seen these images, so much the better. Personally, I think we need to start looking for new models to base our collective worldwide society on... as the current one appears to be bankrupt in more than just a financial sense.
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Third : This flat cat is a work of art, no doubt to be quickly washed away by downpours of rain and eaten by insects, joining the infinite, and re-cycled to live again in another form perhaps. Thank you Thierry, for sharing this photo, and allowing me to publish it here. (copyright : Thierry Dupety)
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Fourth : Topaz did not do this to this cat. Topaz is much to nice for that, she is a real lady, and would never get into a cat fight.
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Dinnertime, And The Living Is Easy...

The tables are set, the bottles opened, the calimari is cooking, just pull up a chair and settle in for a comfortably long evening over a leisurely dinner, with thirsts liberally quenched by local red wine, here in this narrow side street in Nimes, July 2007. In France people tend to work to live, rather than living to work, and are generally better off for it. The gentleman in the white shirt is none other than Thierry D. who helped show me the way to the railroad car just below this post, and who showed me many things about photography I may never have learned elsewhere...(see post somewhere way south of here in this blog about Paris in the Spring) So thank you Thierry for showing us the way to this restaurant, and for such a damn good time...

Paris in the Spring

I was fortunate in a previous life to have lived in Paris not only in the Spring, but also in the Winter, Summer, and Fall. Gay Pareee, the city of light, and these days more and more, the city of the SDF, Sans Domicile Fixe... No Fixed Domicile... bums if you like, homeless people living on the streets, drinking themselves into a stupor, stooped over on steps, urinating in public, living in tents along the Seine, and generally not fitting into accepted norms for social acclimatization.

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This photograph is not one of mine... it was taken by a very dear friend named Thierry Dupety who was one of my biggest sources of inspiration when I was first learning that photography is not only about technical mastery of the tools of the trade, but about photographs revealing a small or large part of your soul. Thierry and I would walk together through Paris photographing right and left, then go develop the shots, and share our feelings about the results. I was quite lucky that he kindly gave me a few prints of his work way back when, which I treasure to this day... I love the texture in this one... thank you Thierry ! Let's get together soon !