Thursday, June 14, 2012

Hey hey hey, it's the Grand Palais

Grand Palis from Champs Elysee

window seat





halls


grand staircase
Helmut Newton exhibit



grand staircase



Grand Palais exterior

As we walked along the Champs Elysee, we noticed a rather interesting building towards the river.  It was the Grand Palais.  Next day, I realized the Helmut Newton retrospective was hung there. Newton was a German photographer busy for most of the middle of the 20th century.  I had wanted top see the Newtons as his wife had curated the show and it was extensive.  I had seen lots of Newton in books and mags, but never up close.

He is a very impressive photog.  He is like Lucien Freud in his existential tensions: they are of the same generation, and both recently died.

It was great to see his work.  The large nudes were inspired by police photos from the 1970s.  He did most of his shooting with a medium format Rolleiflex camera.  The really big prints are eight feet tall and they are grainy but fine nonetheless.  Pixel peepers today would dismiss him.  That is the sad state some photography has sunk to.

The light in the Grand Palais was fab.  I shot a bunch.

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