Jorge Quinteros

From Inside the Louvre

Rummaging through some photographs from when my wife and I vacationed in Paris 3 years ago has convinced me more that viewing art was not just limited to the narrow confines of the museum walls we were in. To visit Paris in itself is more than an opportunity to admire art even if pieces like the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory or the ever-so-stylish Mona Lisa is not your thing.

By the time we got home, we needed a vacation from our vacation because the amount of sightseeing through endless walking we experience was exhausting yet rewarding at the same time. According to guide books and from first hand experience, it’s nearly impossible to see every piece of art inside the Louvre in one day and we certainly didn’t try to but it was one of those recognizable landmarks in the world that you cannot go without seeing for less than 3hrs.

Weekend Chess Play

There’s times I go days without photographing anything and the uneasiness of not strapping on the camera puts in perspective what smokers must feel like when they go hours without a puff. There’s an addiction to the act where you fail to feel like yourself when you’re not doing it and what I generally resort to during these dry times is to sift back through Lightroom catalogs for photos that I purposely failed to upload.

I say purposely because I think it’s a good practice to do away with the natural inclination of uploading every photograph you think is worthy of being shared so that when you don’t have the time to photograph, you at least have a reservoir of content to publish.

Having reviewed photos of when we vacationed in Paris back in 2007, I noticed the photos of landscapes, buildings and transportation could have been much more technically proficient but what nagged me the most from them was the shortage of people pictures I had. At the time, I was oblivious to who Anthony Bourdain was so I didn’t have the influence of realizing the significance of capturing slices of life from locals. Neither did I have the courage to openly ask stranger for portraits the way I may do now.

With the exception of this photograph of 2 friends playing chess on a Sunday morning in Jardin de Luxembourg, I feel I have nothing to show for being in Paris. I’m exaggerating of course but my visit would have been more fulfilling had I been able to have exchanges with locals that were intensely powerful. Reasons to travel generally boil down to the combination of wanting to see things and the need to experience them but the travel aspect has a bigger affect on you when you’ve connected with at least one person.

I loved every moment we spent discovering Paris riding the Metro thinking how much easier and cleaner it was in comparison to New York. I wish to revisit again and apply the technical stuff I’ve learned about photography up until now and capture what I consider the most important feature of a place which is its people.

St. Sulpice Church in Paris

The church is located in the Saint Germain neighborhood of Paris in the 5th District which was around 40 minutes away via Metro from our hotel. We had up to now visited many of the prominent landmarks which played an integral part in The Da Vinci Code film and the last location on our map was St. Sulpice Church.

If you recall from the film, this is the church were Silas traces the Rose Line to an obelisk, hoping to find a keystone leading to the Holy Grail. Aside from housing some of the finest sculptures, this huge 17th century church is renown for containing the largest organ in the world which you can see in the far top of the photograph. Vanessa and I are inherently early risers when it comes to sightseeing so we can beat the rest of the anxious tourist like ourselves, hence the lack of guest at 8am in the morning when I took this shot.

Low light photographs are generally difficult to pull off when you’re not relying on a tripod to provide you with that steady and detail shot you’re hoping for but I managed to secure one decent one from the 7 that I took.

The Streets of Paris

At this point, I can’t think of anything I haven’t said about how incredible Paris is during the Summer other than to state that it can be quite the opposite experience during the Winter season. It’s extremely cold, so surviving that arctic temperatures is all about what you wear and what you put into your body to sustain as much warmth as humanly possible.

We visited during the month of January and in that week, I had never consumed as much hot chocolate or coffee as I did to stay warm as we walked the somber streets from our hotel to the Metro. As for the beverages, the good part about the cafés we visited was that they were all clever enough to invest on outdoor heaters but you had to wonder how mad you have to be to drink anything outside.

Call me old fashion but I have a soft spot for warm places and if you’re willing to explore a city that is nevertheless captivating during anything time of the year (but much cheaper in the winter), then be my guest and think about what you’ll see and not so much about what you’ll have to endure to appreciate it.

Remembering The Louvre

The curiosity to visit Paris increased more after having read The Da Vinci Code. I felt less shallow to admit it when I realized there was a tour created specifically for all the fanatics that wished to follow the footsteps of the film to explore the places, works and themes at the heart of the story. People visited for differently reasons and this was a legitimate one.

Very much like all the other European countries we’ve visited, what struck me most about standing before this glass pyramid was acknowledging that the museum no longer existed as a fact. It know lives also as a memory embedded deeply that could never be taken away.

Despite not having the highest knowledge in art, the intimacy of viewing paintings you’ve only seen in reproduction or seeing a breadth of work by a painter you thought you knew is mind-boggling.

Like all good tourists should, we immediately ignored everything around us for the moment and made a beeline to the painting that is almost synonymous with the Louvre — the Mona Lisa. Along the way, we hasted through gigantic rooms whose walls were covered in rows of paintings and others whose floors seemed like thick forests of statues and relics.

The excess of the work we saw that day has almost become a blur in my memory. I recall searching for Vermeer, Venus de Milo, and Michelangelo but the museum is so massive that you can only do 2 things when visiting. Out of the three wings, you can pass through one and see the majority of one, or you can visit the Louvre on several small cycles, which makes for a long day and thorough visit.

Paris Pigeons

What’s entertaining about this photograph is that the pigeons were a perfect portrayal of what I was feeling when taking the picture. There’s a widespread notion of Paris being heaven on earth during the springtime but quite the opposite can be said about the winter months. The sky is relatively gloomy, there’s perpetual rain, expresso shots become indispensable but on the bright side it’s less expensive and you can take advantage of indulging on all the indoor activities that you would normally miss out on if it were sunny.

Needless to say the temperature was beyond frigid temperatures and I appreciate that these birds were still kind enough to be patient with me while I tried to capture something I was unable to do outside which is stand still like they were.