Bruce, American & European Football, Stolen Art and Gay Pride

An action-packed week again in Paris as summer brings this city to life. Went to the Parc des Princes to photograph Bruce Springsteen's annual visit. He surprised me by speaking a bit of French and didn't surprise me by still being phenomenal on stage.


Imagine my surprise when I found out that there was an French league of American football. The league Championship, called the Diamond Helmet, was played this week between the Flash of La Courneuve and the Templiers of Elancourt.


What struck me was how small the players were, that there was no visible clock (the referee yelled out how much time was left) and how the players yelled in French but interspersed English expressions such as "one time!" (it took me hearing this a few times before I realized it was English!).

To find out who won (for all you betters) and to see my photo expose of the event, complete with captions describing the action, CLICK HERE. (click on the first photo to see the images in larger format)

Staying on the football theme, I went with some friends to watch the European football semi-final match between Germany and Turkey. We went to a Turkish hangout to watch the game with diehard Turkish fans, ready to support the underdog. Turkey lost but the match was really exciting. Through these videos I shot, you can witness the highs ...



and the lows ...



I shot the opening of a new exhibition at the Jewish Art & History museum in Paris which featured a collection of work that was stolen from Jewish families by the Nazis during the occupation of WW II.


The annual Gay Pride Parade winded its way through the city. I was able to take a fews shots on my way to the football championship but didn't spend very long watching the celebration. It's always an entertaining event but there are more and more parade-related problems each year.



You never know what you'll see while eating dinner in Paris: CLICK HERE

And finally, I came home last night to find a big group of models from Belgium in my courtyard, having a party by candlelight. A fashion designer lives in my building (which explains my post from a few weeks ago) and organized the soiree. They were really warm (as in friendly, not skin temperature) and invited me to join them drinking champagne. After some soul-searching and deep contemplation (1/2 of 1 second) I agreed and had a nice evening surrounded by an odd blend of beauty and Flemish sounds.

Some photos of the week:

Bruce rocks
Bruce and the crowd
Gay pride?
Stolen and returned Monet on display

Fete de la Musique, Hancock and INSEAD

Yesterday was a big day in Paris ... the annual Fete de la Musique. The Fete is a day and night where the streets of Paris are filled with music in all its forms, with only one guiding principle - all the concerts are free. The festival was originated in 1982 by the former French Cultural Minister Jack Lang, who we randomly saw walking around the Marais this night. The Fete is now celebrated in over 100 cities around the world, including New York, San Francisco and Pasadena.

On the night, you find an eclectic mix of sound, where you can find some stoner playing DJ by powering his iPod with a car battery and connecting it to speakers, and not far from him, a Brazilian orchestra playing with the Republican Guard band at the Elysee Palace. This year's Fete fell on a night that felt like there was harmonic convergence. It fell on a Saturday night (it's always on June 21st, the longest day of the year), with absolutely perfect weather, a full moon and a big soccer match (Russia v The Netherlands). You could feel the manic energy building in the city throughout the day.

In the afternoon, I met some friends for a drink at the famous Cafe de Flore - locals all hate this place but my friend's friend visiting from the US wanted to go there - and while riding my Velib bicycle there saw a big double-decker tourist bus up on the sidewalk next to the Pont des Arts with a big lamp post bent like a pretzel on the street below it. A few minutes later while at the cafe, I inexplicably saw a huge group of scooter delivery guys from the restaurant Planet Sushi taking over Boulevard Saint-Germain. It was that kind of day.


I spent the night walking various neighborhoods with a group of friends until about 2:30am. It was useless to go home earlier than that because the city was so electric throughout the night that your chances of sleeping before day break were pretty small. I really didn't feel like taking any photos so I have no documentary images but if you'd like to see some from years past, CLICK HERE (these are not my images).


This week also brought the French premiere of the film "Hancock" with a group of stars in attendance - Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Tony Parker, Eva Longoria and Kanye West.


I also had a shoot at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, about an hour South of Paris. A group of young business leaders from Dubai came to INSEAD, a top international business school, to learn the latest greatest thinking in business.

A few photos of the week ...

Charlize Theron
Eva Longoria
The cast of Hancock
Butcher's representation of the city of Paris
Dubai student at INSEAD

Bush, Afghanistan, Radiohead and Models

This week had a political flavor to it, with President Bush coming for a visit as well as the opening of the Afghanistan Donor Conference. Bush's visit to Paris, part of his European farewell tour, came with mixed emotions for me.


I was in the interior courtyard of the Elysee Palace (the French "White House") for Bush's arrival and I couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement when the presidential limo pulled up and Bush got out amidst all the pomp and circumstance of the royal guards.

But honestly, as soon as I saw his little crooked smirk on his face and how awkward he was in that situation (and in his own skin), all I could think about was the shame, embarrassment and dishonor he's brought to the reputation of the USA. For me, it's impossible to watch him enjoying anything, almost like when you see your ex having fun just after she splits with you or something like that. You feel like they don't deserve it.

To see a few more images of the President's Paris visit, CLICK HERE.

Earlier this week I shot the opening of the Afghanistan Donor Conference, with leaders from over 80 countries in attendance.


The conference raised over $20 billion for the reconstruction of that country. World leaders that attended included French President Sarkozy, Afghan President Karzai, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as well as Condoleezza Rice and Laura Bush. There were also many rotund middle Eastern guys there that seemed to be used to the opulence that came with the conference.

This week also included shooting Radiohead in concert (who were, of course, very intense) as well as a Human Rights Watch conference on Chechnya. I volunteer as Human Rights Watch's photographer for events hosted by their Paris office.


The events are almost always very informative and cover topics I usually don't know much about.

And finally, my near heart attack of the week happened when I walked down the stairs from my apartment, turned left to exit the building but then heard a faint noise coming from the courtyard behind me.

I turned around and saw a dozen models, dressed all in white with their hair painted white, all staring right at me. I froze and then, in English, asked the only thing that came to my mind ..."Am I dead?".

Some photos of the week ...

Sarkozy blows
First Lady (let's hope it's jetlag)
Hamid and Sarko

Roland Garros, Zeitgeist and Mystery Dinner

The French Open at Roland Garros came to a conclusion today with Rafael Nadal destroying Roger Federer in the Men's final. The final, being so one-sided, lacked the emotion that we saw in so many other matches in the tournament.


The women's final was more competitive with Ana Ivanovic fighting her way past Dinara Safina (Marat Safin's younger sister). Even though this year's weather was pretty miserable, the tournament was, like always, a treat to shoot. Even if you're not a tennis fan, sitting courtside and watching the skill and speed of the top players is really impressive.


I've put together a 4.5 minute video recap of the two weeks of the tournament. To view the video, CLICK HERE and wait a couple of minutes for it load. Make sure to have your sound on.

Although I may be late in discovering it, I recommend that you watch the movie "Zeitgeist" online. The movie comes in 3 parts (in which each part has multiple parts) - Religion, 9-11 & the Federal Reserve. There are plenty of people all over the internet that attempt to debunk (and de-debunk (rebunk?)) the claims in the movie, but even if each and every claim is not true, I find the movie quite fascinating to watch. My favorite part was Part I, about religion. If you'd like to watch that part, which lasts about 30 minutes, go to these three links:

Part 1 (10 mins)
Part 2 (10 mins)
Part 3 (8 mins)

I'd be very interested in hearing your opinion of the concept expressed in the movie so be sure to post a comment or email me directly.

My favorite moment of the week came last night while I was dining at a Lebanese restaurant on Ile Saint Louis. My friend ordered the special mezze plate which, according to the menu, was a mix of 7 different appetizers from a long list of appetizers that they have. The menu listed a few of the appetizers as an example of what might be among the 7 appetizers chosen for that particular day.

The waiter arrived and when my friend politely asked him which appetizers came with the mezze special that day, he replied "We're not sure. I don't even know." We assumed he was kidding so we laughed but in fact he wasn't. After my friend asked "How can I know what I'm ordering?" the waiter said "I'll give you a few more minutes" and left our table. One might have thought that he would go ask the chef (who I assume is the one deciding) but nope, when he came back, the mezze special was still a mystery.

We ordered it still and it was quite good but I think it was the first time that I've ordered something that the waiter couldn't tell me what I was ordering!

Tennis Time ...

The French Open tennis (Roland Garros) is usually my favorite two weeks of shooting each year. For a tennis fan, it's hard to beat sitting in sun, on the court, and watching the world's best tennis players go at it. Things got off to a rough start this year, with raining spitting down the first couple of days. And although there has only been one day that didn't come with the threat of rain, delays have been minimal.

It's been a rough week for Americans playing there. All the women are out after the first week and only one man - unseeded Robby Ginepri - remains.


Ginepri is the first American man to reach the fourth round of Roland Garros in five years (Agassi in 2003). I shot Ginepri yesterday and he was playing like a man possessed. I can't remember seeing a match where a player hit shots that literally landed on the lines time after time after time. Not sure how far this former boyfriend of Minnie Driver will go in the tournament but he's quite entertaining to watch right now. Here's a photo of his latest opponent Frenchman Florent Serra after he had to endure yet another ball landing on the line:


I will post a compilation of Roland Garros photos when the tournament ends next Sunday but here are this week's photos of the week:

Strange combination
Why my back hurts
Bad luck parking there

The Can’t Film Festival

I’ve been completely consumed by the Cannes (Can’t) Film Festival these past 2 weeks. Thankfully I’ve shot the festival before and having some experience really paid dividends but as a semi-conscious, self-respecting human being, it’s really hard to deal with the levels of incompetence seen in the organizing of this event.

Some of my favorite examples (from a massive pool of choices):
1) The wireless internet in the press room not working because “too many people are using it”. And they expected that each journalist would wait and one by one file their stories, video and images?
2) On the official daily sheet the press office distributes to the press, the one that all the journalists refer to to write stories, caption photos and file their reports, each (and I mean each) day there was a major typographical error. They spelt the name(s) of people incorrectly and my favorite was when they actually got the name of a movie wrong. I don’t know, maybe 3 minutes spent with Google before printing thousands of worthless sheets each day might have been a good idea. By around the 9th day of the festival, I became known as the festival’s spelling monitor since each day I felt absolutely compelled to shame the press office by highlighting each error and handing it to them face to face. On the last day, they asked me if I wanted to work for them next year.
3) After the final photocall where we photographed the award winners holding their trophies, the security guards refused to let the press into the press room for about 30 minutes. A revolt started and eventually, not unlike the Bastille prison a couple of hundreds years before, we just made a run for it and got in. I don’t have to tell you what the stress level in the place was like with hundreds of press people just learning the results of the awards ceremony but being incorrectly (security mix up) prevented from using the internet to file their reports/images


I really could go on and on about things like not enough chairs, or electrical plugs or running out of decaf coffee on the 4th day or no lockers, etc. etc. etc. But let’s just say that if given the choice between having the festival’s organizers there or having complete chaos, I might choose the latter.

There were many firsts that I experienced at this year’s festival:

• First time I’ve had a physical fight (albeit brief) with another photographer (my record is now 1-0 lifetime)
• First time I’ve had water split by a guy next to me onto the back of my computer without receiving even a “sorry” from him. (No damage to the computer luckily)
• First time someone (Chopard) has thrown a party exclusively for the photographers of Cannes
• First time I’ve had to send images from a 3G key (high speed internet via the cell phone network) due to the internet not working at the festival or my apartment.
• First time I’ve eaten at an Asian restaurant called, believe it or not, “Chinks”.
• First time I’ve spent a festival night in watching an electrical storm and a Manchester United-Chelsea soccer match.
• First time I (or anyone else) has seen a French film given the top festival award in 21 years.

Note: I would have included that it was the first time that I’ve had another photographer accidentally lock my stepladder with his lock but it’s actually the second time I’ve had that happen to me.

The good news from the festival is that there are plenty of fun photos to look at, if you’re into these kind of photos. The personal highlight for me was having Sean Penn and Bono arrive on the red carpet together. There are very few people in Hollywood that I respect but Sean Penn is one of them – even if being photographed clearly isn’t his idea of a good time. And Bono, I’m a lifelong fan.

The other big moment for me was seeing Mike Tyson on the red carpet. To me, it was about the logical equivalent of seeing a zebra underwater.

So, if you’re interested, CLICK HERE to see the 100 images of the festival that I've posted. Remember you can click on a photo to view it in larger format, and from the larger image, you can scroll through each image by clicking on the “next” at the top of the screen.

The night before I left for Cannes, I shot a premiere for the film “Made of Honor” starring Patrick Dempsey. I don’t know much about the guy but he was so kind and so handsome that even the men in room where swept up by him.

Photos of the Week:

Red Boot
Segway kook
Cowboy

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