Cynical, but beautiful

I know, this looks like a very basic message - kinda like "aren't we treating men like consumable goods nowadays?" but I loved the graphics. It's not really a graffiti but a printed paper glued to a vent pipe, that I photographed in the Beaubourg area. The garbage can is typical of Paris (with its transparent plastic bag to avoid bombings - that is, to avoid that terrorists hide a bomb in it). It's not exactly the best photo I could choose to start the week, but it really caught my eyes. BTW, I have no idea who did that, so if anyone knows...

Rusty Shutters and... brand new site!

In Paris a lot of shutters are made of steel and not wood. Steel is supposed to last longer, but... it can rust. Which is good for photographers, especially if someone adds some colorful graffiti to them;) On another colorful note, let me take the opportunity of today's post to finally disclose the address of the website project I've been working on for 9 months already and that I finally launched last Thursday. It's in French (although the little video at the beginning includes interviews of some Americans) so you may not be interested, but since I really worked hard to bring it to life, I thought I could afford to exceptionally share the news with you today. Please pay a visit to www.courriercadres.com ;)

The details are in the devil!

I'm late posting tonight... It's 1:20 am, I'm back from the office (!) because of a project I'm still working on, so I won't have time to write a detailed caption... Allow me to post something simple like this smiling devil graffiti on a parking(!) meter 2 days ago. I thought it was cool (and yes, this green thing IS a parking(!) meter!). That's all. I'm off to bed now!

Bruit !

The weekend is coming up, time to party and... possibly make a little noise! I found this interesting work of graffiti in the 13th arrondissement atop a little restaurant in the area. I don't know if it was a message to the owners to quiet down at night, or just a general message to the PDP readers! You tell me... (quietly!)

Rahman

How about a nice little Graffiti to finish the week? I took this photo rue Saint Bruno, in the 18th arrondissement and I like it, because of the father and son passing by in the middle of the picture. Browsing the web I found out who Rahman is: he's a singer from the Ivory Coast and he is also a "slammer" (call me totally old fashioned but I'm not sure what it is exactly...). I'm glad my week is over, I'm going to relax this weekend and take tons of photos of course.

Speed!

OK, that kind of ramps is surely not typical of Paris (I'm sure you can find it in most cities around the world) but I kind of like this photo because of its composition and the graffitis in the background. I'm glad it's Friday, and I'm getting ready for our coming up theme day ("My corner local shop"). Talking about corner shops, I just learnt that I have "lurkers" at Café Bastille in San Francisco, let me wave at them from here ;) Have a wonderful weekend everyone, here it's cloudy AND rainy ;(

Catch phrase

This won't tell you much if you're not French, but this phrase (which means something like "hit the road, you jerk!") has now become so famous that they even make graffiti out of it. It was pronounced some time ago by President Nicolas Sarkozy, while visiting the Salon de l'Agriculture (International Agricultural Show), in reaction to someone who let him know in a pretty aggressive way that he refused to shake his hand. The scene was caught on tape, posted on Youtube and... was seen almost 3 million times! Here is the "subtitled" version. As for me, I took this advice very seriously and... left the country! I'm currently on vacation until May 19.

Personal Message

Paris is such a romantic city that people feel compelled to shout their love throughout the streets! Am I exaggerating? Yes, a little bit, but come to think of it, I'd like to believe it! Besides, do you remember this post from 2005?!

Cool Graffiti

OK, after yesterday's story, I think we all need to come back down to earth! Down to earth is exactly where this boy is actually sitting, - or more accurately, on the sidewalk, right at the bottom of an apartment building located in the northern part of the 17th arrondissement (rue La Condamine). I thought this graffiti was really cool. It was made by a pretty famous street artist called Jeff Aerosol (Aerosol means spray paint in French). BTW: I'll keep you posted if I hear from Manu and Smitha ;~)

Art against Dictatorship

A very "underground" post today... I did a little research on the net to find out who could be the author of this amazing collage and I came across the site of an American street artist called Shepard Fairey (aka Obey) who, apparently, held an exhibit in the Magda Danysz gallery (see a little video here) in 2006. He also was featured, with several other artists, in a movie called "Life remote control" (mentioned in the little TV screens on the right on this image). Huh!

Collage

In the rue Mazarine, I found these pretty unusual paintings hanging on a wall above a restaurant. I really wonder how the authors of these paintings managed to stick them that high, but, anyway, I thought it was a nice photo idea. So here you go!

Let's jump into 2008!

Here we go! Today is the last day of the year and I thought of posting this "newspaper lady" that I found yesterday in the Beaubourg area on my way to the hardware store! It must have been a lot of work to create this piece of art for her "dress" is actually made of newspaper directly glued to the wall. Love it. Shame it's not signed - or I did not see the signature. If anyone knows the artist, please let me know. Don't forget tomorrow is the 1st of the month, therefore a city daily photo bloggers theme day; we are all (so far 101 participants throughout the world!) supposed to post our best photo of the year... Hold your breath!

Caught in the act

At last! I managed to catch one of those guys who pollute the walls of our cities with their graffiti! Just kidding... In fact this is not a real graffito but a piece of art "commissioned" by the organizers of "La journée du bonheur" (happiness day) on the occasion of a happiness gathering that took place today by the Seine and that I witnessed. Cool idea!

Graffiti Montmartre

Whether or not this graffiti artist is mocking "the art establishment" or not I do not know, but I do know that I really liked this when I came upon it. Taken in Montmartre - you can tell by the street sloping! - no space is safe from personal expression. You can also notice a poster for Gospel Dream. If you come to Paris and have time, you can see this and other gospel groups singing in some of Paris' famous churches.

More than just a graffiti

I came across this interesting piece of "graffiti" while in the 5th arrondissement on rue Feuillantines. After enlarging the photo, I searched the artist's name and discovered that Jef Aérosol is quite an accomplished artist, but also musician and writer. The things I learn doing PDP! Check out his biography and work here and here. I think you'll be impressed too! See the location from above.