What a nice surprise to come back home after a week in Paris and get a Birthday gift in the mail from one of my friends. I guess some of my friends know me too well! My friend has ordered it in Amazon way before she knew I would actually be in Paris. I’ve been actually planning to buy this book awhile ago, after following its author, Nicole Robertson, from the blog Little Brown Pen.
So now I am unpacking my Parisian suitcase, putting away my new Les petites Parisiennes shoes, my new favorite perfume from Jovoy Paris, making myself a cup of coffee and slowly getting back to my New York’s routine.
Having the feeling of ‘Feels like home in Paris‘, living in a street that has the same name of a wine. Drinking my morning coffee on a typical French rooftop. Le Marais as the back yard, North of Le Marais as the hood. Getting off the Republique metro station or walking to Temple. Walking in a Parisian rain with no umbrella. Two chocolate mouse as a breakfast. Cute street names as Square Clignancourt, Rue Daru, or metro stop Poissionniere, just for the heck of saying it. Photography walk with local photographers, Birthday dinner with friends in a local place. Chocolate cake all for myself, Bon Anniversaire, Joyeux Anniversaire and a Happy Birthday song in French. Le Baron club. Miss “Queen Misterio” mask, original Photography prints rolled in two tubes. A 5-wine and cheese courses in one evening, Lunch in Collette. Having a private tour with Fred Le Chevalier the Street artist. Waking up to the view of the Sacre Coeur every morning and going to sleep with the same sight. Sundown around 10 in the evening, Sunrise even before 6. New friends, old friends, a friend’s photography exhibit at Village Royal. Buying cheese at Le Marche des Enfants Rouges, getting bread at Du Pain et des Idees and having lunch on a bench in Canal St. Martin with Anne Ditmeyer of Pret a Voyager. Teaching my sister the art of the dyptich, running into a private party in the middle of the day. Counting baguettes on a Sunday. Jam and Cheese in one spoon. Pink Ballerina shoes at Les Petites Parisiennes, Meeting Lindsey of Lost in Cheeseland. Merci Merci. H&M, Mama Shelter Hotel. Poiray rare perfume, Godiva Chocolate as a starter. My favorite cheese gorgonzola mascarpone. Running up in the streets of Montmartre, running down toward Pigalle or Jules Joffrin. Cooking class and a morning Parisian market. The smell of chocolate croissants in the morning. Recognizing some streets, finding my way around and having my sister with me on my Birthday…Priceless!
“If you fail the first time, consider yourself normal. if you fail a second time, consider yourself special for you have what it takes to succeed. If you fail a third time, consider yourself extraordinary, for many people would have already given up”
Montmartre, Paris April 2011
I couldn’t think of a better timing to post these words, as I am currently spending my last few days in the Montmartre in Paris. This picture was taken over a year ago on a weekend afternoon when the area was packed with people, mostly tourists and yet, the images and the words are still so relevant.
I was visiting Paris for few days last April and my friend took me to this area as he knew I would love the view. But not only did I LOVED the view, but also this amazing Street performer, Iya Traore, who is known as the soccer player of the Montmartre and is doing these courageous acrobatic moves while standing on a ledge, overlooking Paris. His performance was quite extreme and I was amazed by his energy and fearlessness. And yesterday, while I was running my morning run all the way to the Sacre -Coeur just to overlook the city and do my stretches, this guy’s presence was missing. And all I could think of was how far can someone go and how extraordinary he could be if he follows his courage.
We first met in a Food Photography’s weekend class at ICP. I think we both had the same camera (Nikon D90) and we worked together on some assignments. Since then we made it as a habit to meet each other once in a while, ALWAYS in a Le Pain Quotidien somewhere in the city (I think we almost covered all the branches in NY) and catch up about our recent or up-coming travels plans or the photography projects we both have in line. (yes, these images of mine were taken by Juliette during one of our Summer Session over a drink in the Lower East Side)
I think it was because of Juliette that I got the courage to travel by myself to Vietnam, as Juliette used to live in Hanoi few years ago. And maybe she got the idea to visit Tokyo because of my recent trip there. In any case, I find Juliette a vibrant photographer who is passionate about travel as much as I do. For my column Window or Aisle, Juliette chose to focus on Black and White portraits; ‘I thought it would add a B&W touch to your blog -haha!- and also thought it would be nice to show that travel photography is also about portraits and how you can travel even in your own neighborhood’ she wrote me, and I couldn’t agree more.
As I write these words I happen to be in Paris, waiting for Juliette’s first exhibit to kick in. The exhibit ‘NY Figures’ will be showing on June 14 till July 28 in Le Village Royal. If you happen to be in Paris on that time, don’t miss Juliette’s exhibition.
Thanks Juliette!
Where are you from? I am a French photographer. I grew up in France and I now live in New York.
Where did you study photography ? Like a lot of photographers I guess, I learned the fundamentals of photography from my father. I studied journalism and in 2001, I traveled to Beirut and perfected my skills at the news agency AFP’s photo service. This is where I learned how to shoot digital. Since I moved to New York, more than 7 years ago, I have been involved with the International Center of Photography, first as a student and now as a Teachers’ Assistant.
What made you want to learn it? I have always wanted to catch and frame certain moments, faces, looks and situations. It’s when I traveled to the US for the first time as a teenager, that I first realized that photography could allow me to take a step back and a certain distance with reality. By taking a picture I could literally “freeze” my surroundings.
If you weren’t a photographer, what would you do? I would be a wine maker and oenologist, maybe in the South of France or in Italy. I LOVE wine!
Where do you get your inspiration from? I get my inspiration from the places I travel to. Different people, atmospheres, lights, streets, landscapes, architecture, that make each place unique. That’s what I try to capture.
How do you usually approach a new project? For me, the usual approach is to look at my environment with wonderment and to let me get “surprised” by a subject, a situation, an idea. Then I start working from there.
What are you working on right now? I am completing a series called ‘Faces of the Lower East Side’. It’s a series of portraits I started to shoot last summer in my neighborhood, the lower east side of manhattan. I have been leaving in this neighborhood for 7 years and have been witnessing the recent evolution of the neighborhood. Gentrification is slowly forcing out low-income families of all ethnic backgrounds. One day I realized that the deli down my building was closed and that I won’t see the Pakistani owner and his nice face any more. That is when I decided to start this series, in order to document my neighbors, the people who live on my block, in my street, who are the faces of the Lower East Side. Taking these pictures make me travel in my own neighborhood. It is a journey through places and time: people from Cuba, Porto Rico, Jewish people, Chinese, young hipsters…
Window or Aisle? Window definitely! I want to see what is going on down under. But you don’t want to seat next to me as I will constantly go back and forth, I can not seat still in a plane! I am too impatient and cannot wait to arrive to the next place.
“No matter how serious life gets, you still gotta have that one person you can be completely stupid with…”
Île de la Cité, Paris June 2012
I was walking in the streets of Paris for hours yesterday with my sister. She came from Tel Aviv and I came from New York to celebrate my Birthday here, in Paris. It was quite a last-minute-plan that worked out very well like a last-minute-plan can work out. My sister hasn’t been to Paris for a while and I am here for a shoot (and I don’t need an excuse to go to Paris) so the timing was perfect for both of us.
Talking about timing. Today I am celebrating my Birthday. And I think the sentence attached to this image, describes very well the essence of an Age. or Aging. or an Attitude towards life. Being able to laugh at yourself from time to time or allowing yourself to be silly or stupid, can be a great thing.
Talking about timing. What makes a photograph to a good one, is timing as well. We were walking in the area of Île de la Cité, right about to cross to the Notre Dame de Paris, when we saw this clown with the aquarium on his head. I wasn’t really impressed or paying attention as I saw him already in my previous visit to Paris but my sister got quite curious so she stood there to look at him.
When I turned my head back to call my sister to join me, I saw this kid. The way these two were interacting was amazingly funny, naive and so….pure. I couldn’t help myself and I took these pictures.
I love it when I take a random turn and it turns out to be the perfect one, or the one with full surprises. That what happened to me few days ago in Lisbon. I’ve visited the city for 48 hours and in one of my strolls I got into a small but well designed artistic cafe, the Belmonte Cultural Club Cafe. I think I was looking for the restrooms and I also wanted to check my emails, therefore I got in. I ended up having an interesting conversation with the owner of the cafe and with the cute mysterious bartender who turned out to be an artist himself. I was very inspired by the interior, the endless books spread around and with the characters. While exploring the place, the bartender made me coffee and put it on one of the tables.
So this is how it looks when an Artist makes me coffee.
I was fortunate enough to get some insider tips from my friends at Gat Rossio Hotel when I asked about the top places to go to while in Lisbon. One of the places I was encouraged to go and see was Pharmacia restaurant in Barrio Alto Santa Catarina area, one of the young and hype areas of the city.
My intention was to see the place and maybe take some pictures of its interior, as I’ve heard it was designed as a pharmacy. And when I walked in and asked for a permission to shoot, it turned out the woman I’ve asked, was not only, but one of the owners who is actually in charge of the restaurant’s design. (two birds in one stone)
Tânia was so friendly and helpful. In fact, after she showed me around Pharmacia and let me take as many pictures as I wanted, she drove me to her other two restaurants; Taberna Ideal and Petiscaria Ideal. (But this is for a different post)
The restaurant is located in a 200- years-building that was once belonged to a rich family in Portugal and served them as a family residential. For the last few years the building is a home of the National Pharmacy Association in Portugal and Pharmacia is located in the ground floor with a great outdoor lawn overlooking the river.
Tânia Martins is the creative person who is responsible for the interior design and the restaurant’s concept. She was working closely with a graphic designer who did the restaurant’s cards, designed the tabs, the medicine boxes that serve as decorative details and even designed the unique wall paper of the restaurant. She told me how much she loves wandering the vintage markets and look for furniture and articles to decorate her restaurants.
Susana Felicidade is the creative chef. She comes from a family where everyone cooks. She is originally from a small fishermen’s village (Arrifama) and spent her childhood in her grandfather’s restaurant that was passed to her parents. Her father is a fisherman as well. She never studied cooking professionally but she has been passionate about it all her life. She comes up with all the food and dishes combinations and tries out new things all the time.
But not only the design, the decor and the concept are appealing, so does the food. Both Tânia and Susana came out with a ‘sharing-food’ concept, which is quite new in Portugal. The menu is such that people can order few small plates and dishes of small portions to share with the other people around the table. Sort of tapas to share and not one main dish per person.
The favorite dishes in Pharmacia are * Tibornas: A toasted bread with garlic and olive oil, topped with brie cheese, arugula and roasted tomatoes with coriander sauce. * Duck croquettes with orange jam, Madeira bread with salted mushrooms thyme and fried egg. *Pica-pau – Sirloin meat with fried potatoes. * Lobster à bras served with egg, fried potatoes, onion, olive oil and parsley. I wish I had the time to try them all.
Next time you are in Lisbon, don’t skip Pharmacia.
Rua Marechal Saldanha 1. Bairro Alto-Santa Catarina area, Lisboa. 213.462.146
Drinking coffee at the local Starbucks but with a Portuguese flavor two times a day, running along the Tagus river instead of the Hudson. Climbing up the hills of Alfama all the way to Castelo S. Jorge just to have an amazing view of the city. Spotting a lot of Laundry shots to upgrade my photography series. Taking a random turn just to discover the artistic design of Belmonte Cultural Club Cafe. Joking around with the owner and getting a free access to shoot whatever I want in Palacio Belmonte Luxury hotel. Having a late lunch early dinner at Saint Antonio restaurant next to San Miguel church. Taking the yellow carreira number 28 instead of the yellow subway line in Manhattan. Croquette de Ovo for dessert. Joining a friend for a last minute call to watch the Companhia Nacional de Bailado. (The National Ballet). Two fish cakes during the break. Bolo de Arroz and Pastel de Nata for breakfast at the Gat Rossaio Hotel in Rua Jardim Do Regedor. Walking along Rua Augusta all the way to Praca do Comercio, Mudo Museu do Design in a Holiday morning. Grilled Sardines with mayonnaise twice at the same day. Another overview of the city but this time from Monumento Nacional. Empty streets of Baixa. Coffee break at the trendy Kaffee Haus in Rua Anchieta. Chocolate break in Xocoa Chocolate Place (Orange flavor). Walking along the streets of Bairro Alto, searching for A Vida Portuguese concept store. Pineapple virgin martini on a sunny afternoon in Pharmacia restaurant in Rua Marechal Saldanha. Having a special tour with the owner of Pharmacia to Petiscaria Ideal and Taberna Ideal. Sneak Peek to Pensao Amor, the newest sexy Nightbar in town. Drinking tiny cherry liqueur in the street with the locals, sleeping only 4 hours a night but walking the streets all day…Priceless.
The Israeli Fashion and Lifestyle magazine ‘Go Style’ is featuring my new Photography session ‘New Yorker for a Day’ in the June Issue as one of the things to look for!
I love how they call it ‘Sivan and the Big City’. Love it when my name is becoming an item.
“…Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don’t see the self as self, what do we have to fear? See the world as yourself. Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as yourself; then you can care for all things…”
Lisbon, Portugal June 2012
I stepped into Belmonte Coffee Club in Lisbon by chance.
I think I was looking for a restrooms or a Wifi connection to check some of my emails when I stepped in. A warm welcoming by the cute and mysterious young manager of the cafe made me stay a bit longer and ask him some questions about the place and the way it designed. Then Fredric, the owner of the place stepped in and I forwarded my questions to him. Apparently, Fredric turned out to be an artist (he made this statue) an avid book reader (he reads a book a day) an ambitious Landscape Collector (who owns the 15th century Palacio Belmonte) and an interesting funny guy. Looking back at this specific day, I can now say my visit to this cafe wasn’t just by chance, and I should have faith in the way things are…Stay tuned for more.
