I don't know how probable it is in Paris to see Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion show for free but in Montreal, it is probable. One of the good things about Montreal is that in summer specially, the city is full of festivals most of which are free. Among these, is the fashion festival which lasts for 4 days in McGill College St.
Designers are mostly from Montreal area but not limited to this city. Models walking on runway, while opera singers in atypical outfits were belting out, made one of the shows quite special.
Unfortunately I was late on the first night where Jean-Paul Gaultier had a show. I did manage to watch but the front rows were so packed that I couldn't take a single photo.
Here are some of the photos I took from the festival
And here you can find the anomalous designs by Gaultier with which he has broken some boundaries. The photos are taken by "Allen McInnis". I selected a few of them here.
In my last days in Paris, I had a chance to get a pass and try my chance on fashion photography for the first time. I went to 2 shows, L'Oreal and Christophe Guillarme. As my first experience, I was surprised to see the tough environment and the atmosphere filled with unpleasant rivalry among photographers. One of them realized that I was a novice and started to distract me by pretending to give me hints about the setting of my camera while his friend was getting ready to shoot. I missed the first model and it was then that I realized what the story was.
Here are the ones I took from L'Oreal backstage.
And these are from the runway.
"Christophe Guillarme" show was at night, in the narrow old streets near Rue de la Roquette. Another interesting thing happened. The people at the entrance, realized that I was an amateur so they told me to go upstairs where no photographer would go. I didn't say anything and came to sit beside an old guy who was a professional photographer and wasn't afraid to give me room in the front row. He even gave me tips on how to tackle with fashion photography.
Here are some of my photos. There was no runway, I used my zoom lens which unfortunately doesn't have a fix depth of field.
I will have some photos from Montreal's fashion festival in my next post.
When I went to a gig or concert, I wanted to enjoy listening to music rather than filming or taking photos. I thought I would never want to ruin the enjoyment of music.
But when I started photography, things became a bit different. I told myself that I want to give it a chance to capture those moments when musicians play with zest and are spurred on to give the best of their performance.
I enjoy small gigs by indie musicians whom I discovered in the course of time. There were quite a few places in Paris offering these musicians a place to play, and music lovers, a modest ticket, to come, enjoy and recognize these artists. Most of these places have a pub-like or bar-like ambiance, with a small stage not far from the audience. One of these places was Flèche d'Or. It was near where I lived. I took a bus and I was there in 10 minutes.
I went there several times to take photos. Here are some of them. For all photos on each gig, you can click on the link on my flickr page.
Here are two from "Plants and Animals", a Canadian based indie rock band from my new city, Montreal.
Listen to "Lola who"and "undone Melody on their myspace page.
The following three are from "Band of Skulls". They are from London and are alternative. Their debut album "Baby darling doll face honey" has quite a few good tracks including "Fire", "honest" and "cold flame". You can listen to the first 2 songs on their myspace page and I will include the third one below the photos.
Emma, was the first female bassist I saw.
It was one of those very crowded gigs at Flèche d'Or that I even had to get permission to take photos.
And here's "cold flame"
"Viva and the Diva", a Paris based experimental band is comprised of Maxime Delpierre, Sir Alice, Arnaud Roulin and Mark Kerr. Their performance was perhaps the most hardcore I had seen. Do check some of the experimental jazz works by Delpierre and if the band has a gig, don't hesitate to go.
Here are some photos from the frenzied Sir Alice.
If you're in Paris, check out the programs on Parisian, l'international and Flèche d'Or. The 2 latter are venues and there are often good shows there.
