Skaters

Mexico City

Alda Mori

Pago Solo En Efectivo

Mexico City

Alda Mori

Little Girl

Teotihuacan - Mexico City

Alda Mori

Park Your Dog

Condesa - Mexico City 

Alda Mori

Silhouette

Oh dis le moi

Shadow Lovers

A Trip to Milan

To Jean-François Bauret - R.I.P (1932-2014)

Jean-François,

The pictures that I took at your studio and that I was too ashamed to show you. 

I remember you telling me that technique is a 30 minutes story where Photography takes much more than that. It takes a life. It took your entire life.

Rest in peace Jean-François. You will be missed.

Alda

The Faces of Gregos

Roaming in the narrow dirty street of Montmartre, one may experience the strange sensation of being closely observed. Looking around, one notices that except for a cat and a few empty bottles of beer, there is not a single soul. Alone. A perfect victim. A chill freezes one's spine. The presence keeps starring. Where is it ? Paranoïd. One's sweaty head starts aching. Spinning. Then it occurs to one that the presence might be in the wall. It can't be. Summoning every ounce of courage one still has (i.e., not a lot), one approaches the silhouette that now seems to be detaching from the wall like a ghost. The ghost is on the verge of surging all over oneself when it eventually occurs to one that the presence is actually a face glued on the wall*. 

A weird experience don't you think ? Yet, really unique and amusing. 

I first came over one of these faces, that one will mainly spot in Montmartre (the artist leaves there), almost two years ago in Saint-Michel district, near the Notre-Dame Cathedral. 

Artist - Gregos

I remember enjoying and sharing this finding with friends and amateurs of the genre but forgot about it until very recently when a friend came from Mexico City to visit. Armed with our cameras, we headed to Abbesses ready to shoot. There are many stencils by Miss-Tic in the area and we knew that we would find what we were looking for. We walked for a while when I spotted the face, Passage des Abbesses. Obviously, we stopped to admire, share impressions and, of course, snap some pictures.

Those of you who are familiar with this artist's work know that these faces are actually a mold of  his face that he glues randomly in the streets of Paris, although Montmartre seems to be one of his favorite playgrounds. 

When the faces are not vandalized, one can enjoy the various moods of Gregos whose itinerary is inspiring. 

Delivery Man to earn a living, Gregos is essentially an artist in motion. He started sculpting and molding in 1997 after spending a few years in Greece to fulfill military duties. Five years later, he moved to Boston with his girlfriend who was then preparing a PhD. During this 3-year period, Gregos enjoyed his free time to study oil  and acrylic painting. When he eventually got back to Paris in 2006, he came up with this idea of molding his face, using all the techniques he had learnt, and then gluing in the streets of Montmartre. 

Since then, more than 500 faces haunt Paris and other French and foreign city streets.

So if you don't leave in Paris, don't be too sad because Gregos glued his face in Berlin, L.A., Athens, Kyoto, Tokyo, Sao Paolo, Portland, Seattle and other cities that are listed on his website which is definitely worth checking. 

Enjoy,

Alda

PS: *Stop watching S.A.W.!

Painter in Montmartre at Work

Roma Ladies

Jef Aérosol and Airnadette

Recently, on my way to the Airnadette* show at L'Européen theatre, I came across some stencils by Jef Aérosol.

 You can see these Rue Biot, Paris 17th.

The talent of the Airnadette band is reason enough to attend this crazy funny show. But, if you need any other reason, the stencils will give it to you.

Best,

Alda


*PS: For those who don't know who are the Airnadette guys and what they do, check this : 
http://vimeo.com/33789238

Enjoy!

Grow your intimate capital

Stencil by Miss-Tic

Street Art: PITR

Artist: PITR

Painter in Montmartre

Valloton's Exhibition: A Must See !

Nude With A Green Scarf - 1914

Last week-end, enjoying an extra-day off I headed to the Grand Palais firmly decided to camp in the line until I got in the Braque’s exhibition.  Well, I had reckoned without the unbearable screaming children and the rain, my “not-not hair” (not straight – not curly) best enemy.

Braque could wait; my hair and my nerves, no.  So to preserve my brushing remains and my cheerfulness, I found a shelter at the Valloton’s exhibition, on the other side of the museum. 

There was nobody in the line.  At least, I was ensured that I could plainly (meaning without kids and groups of glued tourists) enjoy the show.  I got in pretty quickly thus avoiding a rain shower.

Félix Jasinski Holding His Hat - 1887

At this point, I must tell you that until the moment I entered the first gallery I had no idea of who Félix Valloton was or what was his work like.  So when I spotted the paintings on the walls, what a shock!  The preciseness and sharpness of the lines left me speechless.

Not to mention the weird fascination I felt for Félix Jasinski’s portrait and more precisely for his hands and how alive and material they look. The subject seems to be alive; the blood seems to be flooding through his blue veins. It’s quite disturbing.

The paintings were just the beginning of my dive into this polyvalent artist’s world.  Not only was Valloton a painting maestro but he was also a drawing virtuoso.

In the form, Valloton’s black and white xylographs are ancestors of contemporaneous cartoons to the point that you may find a strong resemblance with Marjane Satrapi’s drawings. 

The Lie 

When it comes to describing their content, I would say that these drawings, looked at together or separately, are like a cynical photo-novel about marital life (an ancestor of trash magazines?). The torments of marital and family life, women and their bodies, the strange and undisclosed ties that may exist between two women, are all themes that are present in most of Valloton’s work.  His eye is cruel but yet amusing. Although time is passing us by, some things appear to never change especially human behavior.



As I am writing this post I am already planning on visiting the exhibition once again to enjoy a little bit more of Valloton’s treasures.  

So if you are in Paris, this is a “MUST SEE”!  If you are not you can enjoy a bit of the show on the Grand Palais' website.

Alda Mori

Street Art: M. Chat in Rue Pierre au Lard (Paris)

Street Art: Rue Pierre au Lard (Paris)

Valez (?)

Street Art : Rue de La Boétie

Unknown Artist

Alda Mori