CHALFONT St Giles photographer Ted Kinsey will exhibit 40 monochrome photographs of the historic glass passages of Paris during the city’s prestigious 18th Paris Photo fair this autumn.
The images trace a journey from the Gare du Nord to the Seine, giving an insight into the contemporary city’s different neighbourhoods from the shabby to the chic.
Drawn to the graphic beauty of urban landscapes such as New York, Cuba and India, Ted Kinsey photographs exclusively in black and white.
He said: "Since I started with my trusty old 35mm Nikon FE, my parameters have been that I would only shoot on film, only in black and white, and that all my images would include a human content".
He handprints the 35mm negatives into silver gelatin photographs up to 20 x 16 inches in size in his darkroom.
Ted added: "For my work, I’m mostly on the streets looking around for the unusual…the quirky. I have known these passages since I first discovered them staying in a student hostel right opposite Galerie Véro-Dodat and over the years have returned to them. These often overlooked spaces have kept their character in an age where much of Paris has lost its individuality".
The arcades were built between 1798 and 1860. In their heyday there were more than a hundred, allowing Parisians to shop and stroll at their leisure while sheltered from the bad weather and dirty streets.
They boasted the latest technical innovations - long glass ceilings, intricate ironwork and gas lighting.
There are now less than 20 still in use, with businesses ranging from a Turkish tea shop to hipster men’s clothing shops and pop-up restaurants.
The exhibition, Under Glass, will be held from October 31 to November 28 at Le Petit Choiseul, a café and exhibition space named after the nearby Passage de Choiseul featured among the photos.
Paris Photo 2014 has more than 136 galleries from 33 countries showing at the Grand Palais from November 13 to 16, with other photographic events throughout the city such as the Salon de la Photo from November 13 to 17 at Paris expo, Porte de Versailles.
Go to www.underglass.org
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