A Day at the Park

One of my favorite things to do is sit in the parks of Paris. For some reason they seems much more serene, beautiful, and calming than those of Chicago. And most importantly I can people watch when I am there.

I went on my first serious photo shoot to the park across from where I live. In this park I feel as if every Parisian who is there owns the place. Like this couple for instance who made me feel as if I were bursting into their living room unannounced:

It is as Benjamin talks about, like the park becomes their very own room. People lay comfortably or stretch for a good run and no one seems out of place, except me, with my camera.

A group of boys go by when I am shooting a shot of people lying on the grass and they call out in French I don't understand and then in English, "What art are you making?" in a very mocking tone. It makes me think, what art am I making? What is so fascinating about people lying in grass besides it looking "good" or "pretty" to me? And then I feel that sense of calmness again, the calmness that comes with sitting in this park and reading, or running as I often do. It is the serene, calm, beauty of nature that I enjoy in the midst of a historical city. The best of two worlds, modernity and nature. This is the feeling I unknowingly started to portray in my photos.

I can see this park from my window in my room and I walk past it every day. It has become so much of my routine that sometimes, even after only having been here for a month I forget to investigate why I love it so much. Looking back at photos my notions of the park as a comfort spot is only enhanced. The materiality of the photograph does affect my ideology and perception of the space itself. It makes me think that Benjamin was right when he said, "We know that, in the course of flânerie, far off times and places interpenetrate the landscape and the present moment" (The Arcades Project 419). More and more I begin to see myself as a flâneur.