[photo] Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower - Paris - 26 Aug 2005
Eiffel Tower - Paris - 26 Aug 2005
Eiffel Tower - Paris - 26 Aug 2005

Eiffel Tower #1 - Paris (Tue 16 Sep 2014)

Eiffel Tower #1 - Paris (Tue 16 Sep 2014)

Getting Started - 4 Years On Today ..

The Eiffel Tower - The first time I saw the Eiffel Tower - Paris (Wed 24 Aug 2005)

Jenny and Geoff - Paris (Thu 25 Aug 2005)
It all started with this little challenge (*) by Seth Godin (*) on the Tue 24 Feb 2009 to celebrate his 3,000th blog post:

if you'd like to celebrate this milestone (there won't be another like it for three years or so) please go ahead and start a blog. If you already have a blog, please go ahead and post something really interesting today.

A few days later I would take up the challenge and I posted my 1st blog post here at eljeiffel (*) titled Getting Started (*). Since I had been blogging (the term had not been developed back then) for the period between 1997 and 2003, I looked to my experiences back then and I started again with a small quote (*) from Gustave Eiffel about essentially function and form.

I won't go on as I think I touched on what I have learnt about myself and life, over the last 4 or so years, in my 1,000th blog post (*) back in Aug 2012. All I will say is that it has been challenging, rewarding and interesting for me, at least, and I am glad I took up Seth's challenge back on Thu 26 Feb 2009. The act of creating, editing and the resulting archive (*), seems to give me some comfort and a way to reflect on who I was, who I am and (maybe an inkling to) who I hope to be.

Geoff - A Small Statue / Sculpture of Gustave Eiffel - He designed the structural skeleton for the Statue of Liberty - Liberty Island / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Eiffel Tower #2 - Paris (Tue 16 Sep 2014)

Eiffel Tower #2 - Paris (Tue 16 Sep 2014)

On Self-Published Photobooks - Julia Borissova / Joerg Colberg (Fri 19 Apr 2013)

Julia - Avenue de Flandre / Paris (Mon 15 Sep 2014)
Joerg Colberg (*) writes on Photobooks (*) and Self-publishing (*):

Self-published in a small edition, Borissova’s (*) book (*) reached me from Russia. Here then is one of the beauties of today’s photobook boom, which to a large extent is fueled by the internet and its way of allowing for connections to be made: Stories from far away can be told and brought to one’s door step, without requiring the need of a major publisher. All it takes is an artist willing and able to make a book, and to allow for that little piece of art to sail off into the world - a piece of art not part of the electronically floating world, but a real thing, to be held and enjoyed.

via Review: The Farther Shore by Julia Borissova (*) by Joerg Colberg (*).

Thank you and all the best Julia (*).

Also a big thank you to Joerg (*) for providing a place [The Independent Photo Book (*)] for photographers to promote their books (*).Julia - just a few metres away from the original above - Avenue de Flandre / Paris (Mon 15 Sep 2014)

Tracks - Av de la Grande Amdee / Paris (Tue 24 Aug 2005)

Tracks - Av de la Grande Amdee / Paris (Tue 24 Aug 2005)
This style of photo was inspired by Andreas Gursky's (*) Rhine II (*) - see below - which I had been impressed by in my early photography days. I have a few variations of this and will put them here when I have time to find them.

Rhine II (*) recently sold (*) for a record $4.2 million.

Robert McFarlane (*) recently described (*) Rhine II (*) ..

"It's very simple, very graphic. In a funny way it makes you contemplate the very ordinary moments in your life,"

A nice way to look at my own humble efforts.

Rhine II (*) - Andreas Gursky's (*) - Rhine River / Cologne / Germany (1999)
Some interesting discussion and videos from here (*).

He Who Seeks Beauty Will Find It - Bill Cunningham (Oct 2008)

He Who Seeks Beauty Will Find It - Bill Cunningham (Oct 2008)

Paul Byrnes on Bill Cunningham:

His own mode of dress is self-effacing, workman-like. In Paris every year for the fashion shows, he buys a $20 blue smock with lots of pockets, the kind worn by Paris garbage men. There's a funny scene here where he wears a new one to his investiture as an Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters.

via Life through a lens by Paul Byrnes.

I saw this movie at the Dendy Newtown in Sep 2011 shortly after our return from the USA. It was an unusally cold rainy working week day, but he brightened my day with his enthasasim for life, fashion and photography. Forever an inspiration ..

"Very deeply I think he feels he does not believe he deserves it. That's why he deserves it .. Even more."

It's not work, it's pleasure - Bill Cunningham (Oct 2008)

Getting Started

Jenny and Geoff - Paris (Thu 25 Aug 2005)

Need to start again with something. Why not a quote from Gustave Eiffel which started it all for me back in the early 1990's:

Must it be assumed that because we are engineers beauty is not our concern, and that while we make our constructions robust and durable we do not also strive to make them elegant?

Is it not true that the genuine conditions of strength always comply with the secret conditions of harmony?

The first principle of architectural esthetics is that the essential lines of a monument must be determined by a perfect adaptation to its purpose.

Gustave Eiffel, 1887 - From his response in Le Tempsto a petition by members of the literary and artistic Establishment protesting his project of elevating a tower of iron in Paris.

Luck - Mathew Hayman (Sun 10 Apr 2016)

Untitled - Port Augusta (Sun 10 Apr 2016)

Mathew Hayman on Luck:

I just played the game and got lucky

via Myth Busters: the Mathew Hayman Paris-Roubaix edition by SBS.

We were in Port Augusta overnight on our from Adelaide to Wilpena in the Flinders Ranges. Always try to watch Paris-Roubaix and it was great to see Mathew win on the final lap in velodrome. Saw Stuart O'Grady's win back in 2008 and so glad that I stayed up and watched him play the game and create his own special bit of luck.

I Learned - Leo Babauta / The Minimalists (Sun 30 Nov 2014)

Untitled - Rue de l'Aqueduc / Paris (Thu 19 Sep 2014)
Leo Babauta (*) writes on Learning (*):

I learned to trust that we’d be OK, even starting life afresh [..]. I learned that we can adapt and survive, and cope with the fear of not being OK.

via A Simpler Family Life: Starting Life Anew with Our Six Kids (*) by The Minimalists (*).

Getting Started - Bernadette / The Story of Telling (Mon 01 Dec 2014)

Eiffel Tower #3 - Paris (Tue 16 Sep 2014)
Bernadette (*) writes on Getting Started (*):

The best way to do anything is to begin, then to adjust your course based on what happens next.

via What’s The Best Way? (*) by The Story of Telling (*).

I did this when I started out (*) on this blog (*) almost 6 years ago. And I am still doing it 1750 posts (this post being it) later.

"she had it" - Finding Vivian Maier (2014)

Paris is Calling - Newtown (Mon 07 May 2018)

Finding Vivian Maier on Having It:

She didn't have these measures of status that people aspire to but she didn't have to compromise with it. She did what she wanted. That's what she taught me. She got the life she wanted. She had it.

via Finding Vivian Maier by Finding Vivian Maier.

Doing the best I can - Seth Godin (Thu 14 Aug 2014)

Doing his everything - Sacre-Coeur / Montmartre / Paris (Aug 2005)
Seth Godin (*) writes on Doing our Best (*):

Doing the best I can

...is actually not the same as, "doing everything I can."

When we tell people we're doing the best we can, we're actually saying, "I'm doing the best I'm comfortable doing."

As you've probably discovered, great work makes us uncomfortable.

via Doing the best I can (*) by Seth Godin (*).

On Photobooks and the World Beyond - Colin Pantall (Mon 27 Oct 2014)

Untitled - Ultimo / Sydney (Thu 09 Oct 2014)Untitled - I knew we stumble (*) across this scene - Sacre-Coeur / Montmartre / Paris (Thu 18 Sep 2014)
Colin Pantall (*) writes on Photobooks (*):

I write a lot about photobooks on this blog. The photobook world is small, a few thousand people, but it is dynamic. Sometimes it's too small and it gets too self-congratulatory. When it becomes most interesting is when it looks out of itself, That's when you get great photobooks that are great books - that touch on the world at large, that tie in with a bigger picture, and touch hearts and souls beyond those of the 10,000 people in the world who regularly buy photobooks.

via Luton Airport, x-rays and Blue Peter (*) by Colin Pantall (*).

On Writing - I Wrote this for You / Iain S. Thomas (Sat 06 Sep 2014)

Untitled - Paris (Fri 19 Sep 2015)

Iain S. Thomas on Writing:

Keep writing. Give everything away for free. That's what worked for me.

Remember: Every word you write makes you one word better than you were before you wrote it.

I might have survivor bias but I believe if you keep doing the thing you love, eventually you get good at it and people notice it.

via reddit by Iain S. Thomas.

On William Eggleston - Matthew Israel (Wed 24 Sep 2014)

Eiffel Tower - Paris (Tue 16 Sep 2014)
Matthew Israel (*) writes William Eggleston (*):

In Eggleston's world, objects often fray at the edges, erode or allude to the underside of society.

via Is This the Most Important Photograph of the 20th Century? (*) by Matthew Israel (*).

On Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Less Decisive Moment - Gaby Wood / Sean O'Hagan (Wed 24 Dec 2014)

Street Portrait - Paris (Thu 18 Sep 2014)
Gaby Wood (*) writes on Henri Cartier-Bresson (*) and the Decisive Moment (*):

The reason his photographs often feel numbly impersonal now is not just that they are familiar. It’s that they’re so coolly composed, so infernally correct that there’s nothing raw about them, and you find yourself thinking: would it not be more interesting if his moments were a little less decisive?

via Cartier-Bresson's classic is back – but his Decisive Moment has passed (*) by Sean O'Hagan (*).

On Photography and Luck - Henri Cartier-Bresson / John Paul Caponigro (Fri 21 Mar 2014)

Untitled - Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation (*) / Paris (Thu 18 Sep 2014)
Henri Cartier Bresson (*) on Photography (*) and Luck (*):

Of course it’s all luck.

via 29 Quotes By Photographer Henri Cartier Bresson (*) by John Paul Caponigro (*).

For The Love Of The Game by CabGodot (9 Nov 2010)

For The Love Of The Game by CabGadot
A fantastic video from a Sydney Cab Driver (CabGodot) where he takes a French passenger on 13 min cab ride across town. Along the way they have a great conversation about Graffiti in Sydney, Paris and the world. CabGodot leaves his passenger with the following:

Have as much fun as they let you, and then some more, because that way you are getting away with something. It's what Graffiti is all about. It's about getting away with stuff."

I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash

I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash


La Tristesse du roi (Sorrows of the King) (wikipedia) by Henri Matisse (wikipedia) - Pompidou Centre - Paris - 26 Aug 2005 (picasa)
7 Days - Griffith / Canberra - Sat 12 Mar 2005 (picasa)