In search of timeless Paris

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The photographs of Christopher Thomas connect present-day Paris with its historic past

Paris City of Light by Christopher Thomas, edited by Ira Stehmann

This book by photographer Christopher Thomas, it might be said, offers little to the reader and everything to the viewer. There may be a dearth of text, with only two extremely short introductory essays, but this carefully curated collection of photographic images is evocative of the city in a way words cannot be. The black and white images are devoid of the human figure and this absence becomes a ghostly presence so that empty gardens, squares and spaces become a metonym for the lives to which they bear witness.

In her brief introductory essay, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing makes associations between walking the streets of the city and writers moving their pens across the page. Equally, the turning of the pages by the reader might be viewed as a metaphor for walking too. For while the hand turns the page, the eye moves across that page and anticipates what might come next, rather like walking through the Parisian streets and wondering what might appear around the corner.

These photos may evoke a Paris of times past – they capture historic streets and buildings using a large-format camera and are printed on hand-made paper. But as d'Estaing points out, 'Paris does not cling on to its memories'. In the same way, these photographs do not point to the history of the city and of photography in any sort of nostalgic remembering. Rather they reference the past whilst looking to the future of photography as a legitimate artistic practice. Time may appear to be suspended in these images but there is good reason for this temporary halt of activity. It is in contemplating such momentarily static scenes that the viewer begins to unfold the past, present and future of Paris and of photography itself.

Gesturing backwards to Louis Daguerre, Eugène Atget, Robert Doisneau and others, and a time when a new modern age was emerging in Paris, Thomas' contemporary practice also references the more recent history of photography. He uses Type 55 Polaroid film long-since past its sell by date. This yields both a positive and a negative and an opportunity to experiment with the past in the present day.

Curator Ira Stehmann suggests that Thomas acts as a modern-day flâneur, the modern equivalent of the poet Baudelaire, wandering through the silent streets in the early morning, capturing the landmarks of Paris in a way that evokes their histories anew. Here the lives that Honoré de Balzac and Émile Zola formed upon the page take life again in the mind of the viewer. Sights such as the Sacré Coeur, Notre Dame and the Jardin des Tuileries appear in the present but remain firmly rooted in the past.

To turn the pages of this collection – for it is a collection – is to walk the streets of Paris within a fresh eye. The look and feel of the book are important too. Its deep midnight blue cloth covers impart stillness almost as much as the images it contains. The concept of the collection, rather than individual images, is also important since it takes time to consider these images as a series or a whole. The time and consideration they require is demanding of the viewer, who is called upon to engage in a more considered way than perhaps they would otherwise. In the days of broadband and 4G, Paris City of Light offers solace to the viewer and respite to the weary traveller. If you are planning a trip to Paris in the springtime then this is a pretty good place to start.

Paris City of Light  byChristopher Thomas, edited by Ira Stehmannis published byPrestel, Munich, London and New York 2014. 160 pp., 80 mono illus, £45.00. ISBN: 978-3-7913-4964-0