On a recent trip to Paris I spent the day photographing on the street. Paris is such a beautiful city that you get the wonderful symmetry and textures that frames the foreground and of course the people are a joy. This small tryptech of images was a sweet couple on a side street near The Louvre. They caught my eye and of course its a simple joyous moment as they are clearly exchanging a joke and laughing about something, they have what you might call proper ‘Joy de Vivre’. On its own a special moment but I’ll always remember these images because as I captured the three frames in a spit second and started to walk on I looked in the opposite direction and saw another couple in a window of a coffee shop facing out onto the street at the same scene I had just photographed, and the man had a broad grin on his face and was giving me the thumbs up for catching the moment.

It was a nice feeling to actually get a pat on the back for a change for celebrating people and life. Its something I always feel when making street images, a positive energy for the potential of joy in a moment. I tend to see things in a glass half full perspective and its simply hard bloody work at times when you get scowls while photographing. Perhaps it’s the downside of the new explosion in photography that people are all a bit jaded. I’m thrilled that so many people enjoy taking photographs these days but I wish there was a more relaxed attitude to photographers. To me its a personal Joy De Vivre and all I want to do is woop and point out that there is a moment in life worth preserving and celebrating. So a big thumbs up to the French for ‘getting it’ and celebrating the art of the street photograph!

I’m editing a lot of new work for my website so look out for more blog posts and new galleries on my site in early 2013.