I got up early enough to hit up the Starbucks I had located the previous night. Though I ordered an iced vanilla latte, I was given an iced caramel macchiato, which thankfully I still like. I cannot tell you how delighted I was to have an iced latte in my hands. It took me back home, that's for sure. Too bad for Jen, who came with me, she didn't really get to enjoy her drink; she bumped into a pole or something and dropped her vente hot chocolate in the street... it was pretty funny... but not for her. haaaha. (I also bought a pain du chocolat, which has become my morning tradition in frqnce. SO delicious) We took the subway to some other part of Paris and began our search for the Photography Institute of Paris. After a lot of walking we finally arrived. Pierre, the owner and founder of the 25 year old school, gave us a tour right off the bat. The students at the school, which it's a fairly small school.. they only have up to 1,000 students or so I think he said, have 24 hour access to a huge shooting studio with lamps and backgrounds and everything. He took us into another room where students were actually in a class practacing studio lighting and shooting. This is an entirely english speaking school, so another point for that. He showed us a few various computer rooms that were littered with huge up-to-date iMacs. He also showed us their darkroom (my favourite part) and then went on to explain that they only teach darkroom and alternative processes for the first year of school for students. After that, they focus more on digital things and what not specifically to prepare the students for a job once they are out of school. (yes, as much as I have always hated to admit, digital is the booming side of photography right now; thought, analog is beginning to make a place for itself once again). He sat us down in a small lecture room and talked to us more in depth, and in english, about the Niepce house that we had visited a few days prior. We quickly found out that he was the discoverer of the Niepce house, and further was the one who was able to produce evidence from the house proving that Niepce was in fact the founder of Photography. So basically I hung out with a celebrity all day. After the lecture and speech and such about Niepce he served us snacks and wine (I had coke thank you very much) and even gave us a free book.
SIDE NOTE: Clocks by Coldplay is playing over the Holiday Inn speakers. I've decided that europeans love Coldplay.
It was a really huge deal for us as students to kind of get our foot in the door in a school such as that. It's definitely a HUGE opportunity for those who are interested in digital commercial and fashion photography.
We had lunch in a big open plaza outside full of people. There were a lot of street performer type things... those are common here on the streets of Paris, and there was even a girl playing the didgeridoo. I took photos to show my big brudder who has become quite fond of didgeridoos, and zach too who somehow even discovered a way to make his own out of pvc pipe. Ah, art. After lunch we hit up a local photography museum which left me entirely unimpressed. I saw one or two photos that intrigued me, but nothing more. There were a few collections that I actually hated for their sake of being overdone and cliche, but it's photography so whatevz. We mqde our way back to the hotel for our first little discussion and critique where we shared 10 photos and explained our vision for our own series' from the trip. Seeing as I'm doing film, I couldn't really show any photos of mine. After talking about my whole Street Photography aim, people mentioned how people react when I take photos- something I actually never noticed. People pose and interact and are generally excited and happy when they see I'm photographing them. I feel like it has a lot to do with me being a small innocent looking girl, and the fact that I'm clearly an american just visiting europe. After talking about all of this I decided to point my series focus more towards the risks I take in shooting, or so it feels as such to me, and the reactions I get from the people. Pretty fun.
We had dinner at some random cafe- I had carpaccio which is delicious here. They make sure that you know it will be raw... I guess not many americans have had carpaccio before and complain when the delicous plate of tender delicate beef is placed in front of them. We stopped by the market to get some candy, and it was here that I had my first kind of Street Photographer experience. Nothing huge, but it was a big deal to me. I thought it'd be fun to photograph people shopping in the grocery store, so I whipped out my camera and was adjusting my aperature and shutter speed according to a light reading from a random wall when all of the sudden some dude sticks his hand in my face and camera lens. I looked up and he just said, 'sorry please no photos!' I don't know if 1) he thought I was photographing him, 2) he didn't want me photographing the merchandise, or 3) didn't want me photographing the entire wall of liquor behind the counter that I didn't realize I was taking my light reading from (haha typical me). Nonetheless, it disturbed him and the atmosphere, which is what Street Photographers do. It didn't affect me in the slightest, which is what I'm the most excited about. I'm not afraid anymore.
I went to bed early, well I generally do compared to everyone else seeing as they all like to party and hit up the town and bars at night... and that's totally not my thing.
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