September - Paris to Montpelier

Well we made it back to Paris before the summer was out, even if just for a day.  It was a quick trip to visit Fraser's new publisher, a one night stop.  We arrived into the city around 7.30 pm, so just in time for dinner.  We dropped our bags at the lovely and very french apartment and took a look out of the kitchen window, stretching out into the night air, to see the most unexpected and wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower.  It was so beautiful, like a huge christmas tree all lit up for the city to see, twinkling and sparkling magically out into the night.  Seven floors down onto the street we stepped out into the warm evening air, metro line over head, metros passing by every 5 minutes.  We dined in a sweet little french brasserie on the corner of the street with Petra and her husband, took a table inside by the windows, which were opened up ceiling to floor out onto the street.  It had been a long day but an enjoyable train journey from Toulouse to Paris 1st class, so it was nice and always a pleasure just to sit together and watch the country change from South to North, through towns and countryside heading for the great city. So there we were happily tired on the Boulevard de Grenelle in the 15th arrondissement, drinking the most deliciously rich chardonnay, eating fine french food and chatting as the overground metro trains passed by and the sound of french conversation and the warmth of the  evening air floated around us.  It was a beautiful evening.  Back at the apartment, which was only a minutes walk from the brasserrie, we couldn't resist a few more glances at the incredible view of the Tower, then off to bed for a long and comfortable sleep.

So our day in Paris began, it was another pleasant day, warm but not directly sunny, just nice for the city.  It was market day on the Boulevard de Grenelle so we stopped for a coffee to start the day and watched the world go by for a while.

Boulevard de Grenelle

Then it was an early morning meeting at Metisse Music, but not before we stopped by a boulangerie to pick up their most beautiful gateaux to take along.  So there we were, cake box in hand heading towards signing Fraser's first publishing contract, it was the beginning of a good day.  We had a long leisurely lunch out at an Italian with Petra and Adrien, where we were charmed by the waiter and the complimentary Italian liqueurs, before heading back out into the Parisian afternoon street to catch up with time again.  But as the day was passing so quickly, you know how it does when you are having fun, we had to rush back to pack our bags and then collect some papers from the office before heading over to the Pantheon for another interesting meeting and a cafe Jacques, just in time to catch a bus to Montparnasse for the train home.  There wasn't much time to stop and photograph the city like I would normally do but this trip was the shortest one I'd had, not enough time to record, only just enough to have a whole lot of fun.

We made the train in good time, settled into the 'zen' zone of the TGV for the journey home, reaching Toulouse by 11pm, then home.........

A few days later we were off again but south this time for a concert in Montpelier for the International Guitar Festival's opening night.  Fraser was playing at the Jacques Brels Theatre a few km's out of the city.  It was a sold out show, a wonderful night.  The audience were so warm and everyone involved in the organising from the festival staff to the sound engineers were just incredibly welcoming.

Opening night at the International Guitar Festival of Montpelier

'Only a boy' at Montpelier

After the show, after I tripped up over the pavement and scraped my knee, doohh!  (a very nice look to compliment my little 50s dress, it was definitely the shoes I swear it, I hadn't touched the wine!),  we headed into Montpelier to the really sweet Hotel du Parc for the night but not before a walk in the midnight air to the Place des Beaux Arts for cocktails and to celebrate Fraser's birthday.

  So it was a busy busy week, much organising and coordinating but we got there.  The morning after the concert we spent in Montpelier, first off an outdoor cafe for breakfast then a walk into the centre, over the tram lines and into the chic of the city.  

Le Fleuriste, Montpelier

By sheer luck there was a Brassai exhibition on show at the Pavillon Populaire, ''Brassai en Amerique 1957' - what an incredible and inspiring body of work - it was so well presented too, an incredibly lucky encounter to just stumble across and the cherry on the cake for the week we had just had.

'Brassai en Amerique 1957' Montpelier

An authentic life in art and the art of living....

old chairs under the Mirabelle tree

Today speaks of summer, all around the sounds of gentle buzzing bees, birds, almost the silent sounds of butterflies as they dance together in perfect rotations, never colliding - it seems these summer days, the volume is so gentle - even the small airplaines overhead  go by with a gentler sound, it's all turned down and muffled as though we are in a cocoon.   There is authenticity in our life here, in the south of France, in the midst of the country.  At times being away from the city, leaves us feeling a little isolated - as artist's we need life, people, art but really this solitude and space has done so much for our art and the development of our authentic art - that leaves us feeling only gratitude.   


I recently saw a speech Malcolm MacLaren gave in 2009 called 'authentic creativity vs karaoke culture',   It was the last talk he gave before his passing in 2010.  It was such a breath of fresh air, "authentic art is a messy business" he said, and that we must learn the 'struggle' to become authentic, that it's this struggle that creates the authenticity.  In the 'Karaoke culture' in MacLaren's words it is "cool to be stupid" and that we have forgotten what it means to 'struggle' and work for more.  It seems true, these days people search for quick results, quick fame, quick fortune,  they seem to have forgotten and even never learned that the road to authentic living is  gained only by taking the journey.   Art for art's sake as opposed to for career's sake.  When MacLaren was asked, how do we get away from our Karaoke Culture?, he replied "it's very very hard for anyone to pursue learning, to struggle, when you don't have to struggle.  When everybody in a karaoke culture can be successful instantly, how do you change that? why do you think people are going to learn to struggle?  I think it's a pity the old boys aren't still around to teach the other way because the other way actually is more sexy, authentic is more sexy than 'karaoke', 'karaoke' is like f***ing an inflatable doll and the authentic is about doing the real thing!"  It may not be the most eloquent manner in which to say it but the point he made is perfectly right and  I love and admire the honesty he had, we need more of this in the world.


Being here is a constant reminder of authentic life, earlier today some travellers, perhaps Romani people,  passed by in horse drawn carts, the kind of homemade carts reminiscent of the old western movies - they were singing together and making their way through the village in no particular rush, it seemed - one man reached up and smiled as he picked a flower from our wisteria tree as he passed by, a simple act of appreciation, appreciating life as they pass it by - what a way to see.  Maybe slowing things down is one way to discover authenticity.

Peeling plums

The plums are falling from the trees now, which brings the squirrels back into the garden, also the bees but they always seem friendly enough - there is a sense of equilibrium between all the species in our garden - a tranquility.  Eliah listens to some Elvis songs and I peel some plums outside under the shade of the wisteria tree- this is another messy job but an authentic one - I love our plum trees, they shower us with blossoms in the springtime then gift us with juicy plums during the first few weeks of the summer.  Samuel brings me a flower for my hair and we admire the giant sunflower, which is almost ready to burst into full flowering bloom any day now, it stands over 6ft tall with it's beautiful heart shaped leaves against the white wall of the house.   The cats and Fox, the dog, laze in the afternoon sun.  

Sunflower against white in the afternoon sun

Authentic art is a messy business and it's exactly that mess that creates the heart and soul capable of creating true art.  I think of the butterfly in the cocoon, without the struggle there would be not the strength for flight and all it's beauty.  Maybe life is like being in a cocoon and our journey towards liberation can only truly be sought through authenticity,  as it is written in The Prophet 'the cracking of the shell that encases our understanding'.  Without this understanding we remain in the cocoon, masking the true essence of what we can become.

When I think of authentic art, I know it is what will be remembered through time, I believe this wholeheartedly.  Vincent Van Gogh was said to have painted in his struggle to find some "comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature" and I imagine some comprehension of himself in this world too, as I believe we all do.  He was "determined to give happiness by creating beauty" - that was his motivation, my heart fills with this knowledge.   Now considered one of the greatest artists of all times, he sold only one painting during his lifetime and left the world,  without any knowledge of how much the world would owe him.  The authenticity of his life was not particularly appreciated in his lifetime but for the lifetimes which followed, it was clear.  It takes courage to live without the masks most of us wear in our strive to 'fit in' and be what we believe we 'should' be - the authentic route may not always be the easy one but surely it has to be the only one worth living.

"The creation of an authentic work of art, the creation of an authentic life - they are one and the same" Richard Bode.

More on vinyl and vintage shopping in the South of France

Over the past month we have discovered some new places to buy vinyl in France and it has been a wonderful trip.  We had one really hot and incredible day out in Toulouse last month, just after Fraser returned from New York (with a few new records he picked up whilst in Toronto at an old antique/second hand shop).  So we had a much needed day out together in one of our favourite Cities, Toulouse - lovingly named 'Paris of the South'.  It's a wonderful place and the weather that day just made it all pretty perfect - the City was packed with all sorts of life - performance art in the Place du Capitole, political protests,  football supporters (Toulouse were playing Bordeaux), outdoor tango dancers, bikes passing by on every street, chic shoppers.... all the tables were taken in the cafes, ice cream was passing around on every corner, the morning market was just packing up, leaving behind all the usual evidence of the morning's business in the square.  We arrived for lunch, sat in the little round park right in the centre and ate fresh pineapple and cherries.  It was buzzing in Toulouse that day.  We naturally gravitated towards what we consider to be the coolest area in Toulouse,  the vintage district.  There you can find some of the best vintage clothes shops I know and vinyl shops for the serious collectors, cool looking barber shops, Rock 'n' Roll shops and street cafes.  It's a great buzz and I always find something interesting to photograph there,  a real homely feeling part of the City.

Made in Jazz, Toulouse

We walked into 'Made in Jazz', a real collectors record shop, to hear a vinyl record of James Carr on the turntable and of course a pretty cool looking man standing in the doorway, he smiled and nodded as we walked in.  A man in jazz spats and a panama hat surfed through records in the corner, turntable and headphones to the left.  Picked out some old records from the bargain box to have a listen to.  Took a chance on Earl "Fatha" Hines - Blues for Garroway - Hollywood Hop.....and listened just for a second or two before I knew that I was not leaving the shop without it, my life is enhanced...

Fraser listens to 1938 recordings of Lester Young

So we paid for our bargain box records - Lester Young and the Kansas City Six and Five (1938), New Orleans Style Jazz by Kid Ory and His Creole Jazz Band, Wilbur de Paris, Sidney Bechet, Oscar Papa Celestin, Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club (1937 & 38).... spoke a bit about James Carr with the owner, he recommended a good restaurant for the soir, then we stepped back out into the street and the hottest part of the day.  Simple things, good old simple things, that's the stuff of life.  Tried on some vintage clothes - I mean really vintage - an old guard's uniform for Fraser, a 20's ball gown for me, it was really too hot for that kind of fun actually but we had some laughs.

Fraser sporting a Scot's guard uniform

Down by the river it was like a scene from Life Magazine, people everywhere engaged in so many different ways - with a theme which ran through the whole thing - 'summer's day' - let's just hang and be, whatever we feel like doing is just fine by me....

Down by the river, Toulouse

We spent the rest of the day walking and talking....catching up on all the events from New York to Toronto to New York to France, ate  'Indian' at a pavement cafe on our favourite street, caught the new Woody Allen movie 'Midnight in Paris' and walked some more in the cooler after midnight air playing the 'what was the highlight of your day' game.  Buying vinyl is a good move, especially on wonderful days like this as now every time I put Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club in 1938 or Earl 'Fatha' Hines on my turntable I remember that perfect summer's day in Toulouse - double bliss.....

Use art to turn the world inside out- an idea worth sharing

JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out | Video on TED.com

JR is a french street artist, who won the Ted prize this year. He gave this talk last month in California and launched a new project called 'Inside out' and I wanted to share it.   He began his Ted talk with a question  'can art change the world?', the answer he gave, 'no, it's not really supposed to but it can change the way we see the world'.  This project is an evolution of photography in the 21st century, the idea is so simple.  Images of humanity and giant posters.  When he takes a close up of a persons face, turns it into a giant print and pastes it for the world to see, he exposes faces that would be normally unseen and forces questions to be asked.   He went to the Middle East and photographed the faces of the people from both sides of the wall, he pasted giant images of these people side by side, one Palestinian, one Israeli, both from the same profession and when he asked the people who were naturally curious, which one was which - they couldn't tell. This project was called 'face to face'.  This work is profoundly beautiful, on many layers, there is a story behind each image, a human being and in this there is a power to change the way we see things and in JR's words "what we see, changes who we are" and in this the possibility that maybe art can change the world.

"I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project and together we can turn the world inside out" JR

To participate in this project or find out more visit www.insideoutproject.net

Vinyl

A few weeks ago we bought a record player, it was a birthday gift for Eliah, one of our sons.  In our ultimate wisdom and fast moving 21st century technology we have learned the art of pressing buttons.  We have instant heat, light, music, messages, effortless photographs and just about anything else we want, all at the touch of a button.  But how much do we really understand about it all?  How do we connect what we put in with what we get out?   Eliah has a real craving for knowing how things work and he loves music, so a record player seemed the perfect gift.  So on the occasion of his 13th birthday, we introduced him to vinyl and the art of playing records.

Eliah plays his first record

 It was a wonderful day, the sun shone and we hung around the garden with the vibe of spring, listening to some old vinyl that we had picked up at the Brocante the day before.  It was so cool to watch our children, who had actually never held a record before, revelling in the fact that you can play both sides!  They marvelled at this whole new world.   For us,  it opened up a world we already new in a distant part of our lives, childhood memories before cds came along and took our attention.  I remember looking through my Dad's vinyl collection, carefully pulling out his records and sitting in the sun on the floor, feeling the music all around me, making some connections through the music he had liked and seemed to have forgotten.  The crackles, the fullness of the sound, there is something quite alive in listening to a record that seems to be lost in the perfection we strive for digitally.  It feels the same in photography, something seems lost in the digital process, that quick turnaround again.  I feel something is gained in the process of developing film and printing in the darkroom, perhaps it's just time that we miss, maybe time is the magic ingredient.

I've heard people say that vinyl is making a comeback, if it would be so bold as to do that.  I prefer to think that it will quietly slip back.  Lots of artists are choosing to release their records on vinyl now, we are planning to do the same.   But still many people believe strongly that we won't look back, now that we have it all at our fingertips, why would we want those bulky records clogging up our shelves?  What next, books?  I mean don't get me wrong I also love the way we can access literature in the 21st century, but I'm still a lover of bookcases full of books and I don't see that changing.   I personally think there can be room for both - Eliah's new record player has a USB port so you can upload your vinyl onto Itunes too and have the crackles and the old records you just can't get anymore, digitally.

Buying vintage vinyl is also a lot of fun, some very interesting cover designs, what was going on in the 80's I often wonder?  It's a gamble sometimes, other times there is a certainty, an "I can't wait to get home to play this one" kind of thought but either way the process of pulling that record out of the sleeve, I imagine for the first time in a long time and bringing it to life again on the turntable is really quite magical.  To hear those sounds fill the room, like they had before,  same as they always did.  There is something almost visible in  the music.

Today in our village it was a beautiful sunday morning and the village was unusually bustly as it was the first 'vide grenier' of the year - a time for people to come out and sell their old things, antiques, clothes, toys.... (vide grenier  translates to 'empty attic' and for some people it's clearly quite literally what they do, some incredible treasures are to be found)  So we had a lazy stroll around and found a man who had a few boxes full of old vinyl, a euro a piece, so we had a good rummage through and found some interesting and wonderful records by Supertramp, Barbara Streisand, Eddie Cochran....

sunday morning at the vide grenier

At the end of the day I was looking through the records we had bought, I put on 'My Way' by Eddie Cochran.  The record turned and crackled, floated out into the air.  As I read the back of the album cover I learned that Eddie Cochran had tragically died at the age of 21, on the 17th April 1960, which happened to be exactly 51 years ago to the day, this record had been released a few years after in 1964.  I had no idea of his story, his name and music was distantly familiar to me but I had no idea of his life.   I wondered when it was last played and by whom?   I love vinyl, in the same way that I love vintage cars and vintage clothes.  Why?  Maybe they seem more human and individual in some way, each one has it's own story, stories that, just like my new Eddie Cochran record, move from one era into another like a thread to tie it all up together and there is something I find quite grounding in that.

Through blue eyes

If my grandmother had still been alive she would've been 100 years old next month, she saw almost 100 years.  I imagine all she must've seen through her pale blue eyes as I now see through mine.  My influences come from all those years, maybe some of what she saw found it's way into me.  I prefer to photograph in black and white and remain firmly inspired by the film and photography of the 20th century.  I use a Leica M8 digital camera which is the perfect blend of past and future, as I am still grounded in the magical process of light and time, of exposure and the respect of that moment - of the manual process of photography, of feeling what I need to do in that moment.  I have spent the past 5 years living in France, observing how the old meets the new here, documenting the pull between the last century and the new in a rural setting as well as in the Cities.

The Majestic Pier, Cannes

Paris, January 2011

Chic shoppers, Cannes

Cafe, Toulouse