Timeless Paris: A Photographic Journey

Paris has always defied time in its own unique way. It is a city with an indisputable spirit of timelessness. 

You can walk on cobblestones a thousand years old. Or pass by churches and hotel particuliers built centuries ago.

You can savor a glass of wine in a café that served Voltaire, Rousseau, and Benjamin Franklin (Le Procope) or dine in a restaurant whose view is almost the same as it was more than 400 years ago (La Tour d’Argent). 

You can stroll on a quai by the Seine — knowing that it is the same path that was taken by flâneurs of many generations. 

You can cross a bridge that was built in the 1600s. Or stumble on the remnants of the medieval Philip Augustus wall that protected the city in the 12th and 13th centuries. 

Of course there are now McDonald’s and Starbucks and Chipotle’s (oh my). And scaffolding, rats, and strikes seem to be omnipresent. The vagaries of modern life have stealthily crept into the layers of history. 

Sky-high buildings break the Haussmann height rules even though they are relegated to the edges of the city.  

The past, present, and future are always intermingled.

But if you want to get lost in time, that dream is still possible. 

En Dehors de Temps (Outside of Time) 

The photographs shared here (from the Mullins En Dehors du Temps series) have embraced that dream. The black-and-white images capture the rhythms, scenes, and street life that are part of the Parisian story. 

But they are also an exploration of expanding (and defying) the traditional boundaries of time. The images channel early photographic processes to further mystify perceptions of time. 

Are the silent snows, time-worn stairs, serendipitous characters, and majestic bridges the past or the present … or both? 

The elusive time continuum becomes so interwoven and entangled when looking at these fleeting moments that it is easy to be lost. There is no anchor to a specific era. 

It is hoped that you feel free to dream … between the past and the present. The boundaries are blurred. 

Every photo pays tribute to the great photographers who walked in Paris before. The element of surprise and discovery that the very first photographers in the early 1800s experienced (Nièpce and Daguerre) is still present when using applications of these early techniques (Tintype and Daguerreotype processes). You are never sure exactly what the result will be. 

The early science was not perfect. But the imperfections are part of the beauty.  The soft focus and distressed/degraded areas add to the dream-like quality.  

The influence of the humanist soul of the French photographers of the mid–1900s (Cartier-Bresson, Ronis, Doisneau, Weiss, Brassai) is also strong.  

They sought to reveal the simple moments of everyday life that make us so beautifully human. 

Notre Dame 

Sometimes, when you walk by a place so often, it can become just a blur of background scenery. Not so with Notre Dame. For me, it has never — ever — been just part of the scenery. I always pause and look up — awed by its grandeur and its place in history.

In 2019, the cathedral was devoured by fire while the world watched in horror. 

The medieval dry oak beams, called “the forest,” ignited like kindling; and when the classic spire wobbled and then crashed into the nave below, there was universal heartbreak. 

Now, after years of painstaking restoration, the cathedral is open again, seeming much younger than its 850 years. 

Inside, among many beautiful works of art, rises the Virgin of the Pillar, a statue standing just to the right of the altar. When the ceiling and spire collapsed during the fire, she was, by some miracle of faith, unharmed, while everything around her was in ruins. 

She, and the resurrection of Notre Dame, confirm, with heart, history’s will to survive. 

The Silence of Snow 

Snow is rare these days in Paris. The images of snow from the past make us yearn for more. The world is transformed. Everything familiar becomes new … well-known places are sculpted into their most basic graphic elements. 

Although it’s hard to go out alone into the cold and wet, it is the only way to capture the true spirit of snow — to be the first to make footprints. To be transported back to a Paris outside of time … simpler, softer, and silent. 

Defying Time 

Is it crazy to defy time, to seek nostalgia or romanticize the most romantic city in the world? 

Not really. 

Sometimes we need to take a pause … and just be lost in time. 

Photography Workshops: 

To learn more about how to capture the spirit of Paris in photographs, see the courses that the nonprofit anglophone organization WICE presents. The next class offered is Photographing People, which begins October 13 via zoom and is taught by Bonjour Paris writer/photographer Meredith Mullins. Learn how to capture all those photo-worthy characters of Paris … and beyond!