Tag Archives: Paris

La Flâneuse

Flâneuse [flanne-euhze], nom, du français. Forme féminine de flâneur [flanne-euhr], un oisif, un observateur flânant, que l’on trouve généralement dans les villes.

An incremental part of anthropology has always been photography for me. It can be used as an aide mémoire to simply remember where one has been or whom one has encountered on a particular day, thus substituting for fieldnotes. It can also be used as a methodological tool in order to detect the ‘minor modes’ in everyday life or in co-existence. A photograph can be scrutinized for its details, revealing more and more of them, every time one looks closer. But photography can also help express oneself when words fail. Rather than serving the eye, it serves the mouth that does not find the right words or ceases to speak alltogether. When used in this way, photography is neither only a method nor a product. It becomes a mode of existence in itself.

Woman emptying out the Canal. /
Femme vidant le canal
Little girl with no memory of the war urges the French to remember it /
Une petite fille qui n’a aucun souvenir de la guerre exhorte les Français à s’en souvenir
14 million books locked in four towers while researchers work underground /
14 millions de livres enfermés dans quatre tours pendant que les chercheurs travaillent sous terre
Part of a wall painting of the anthropology faculty at University Paris-Nanterre, painted by a determined artist /
Partie d’une peinture murale de la faculté d’anthropologie de l’Université Paris-Nanterre, réalisée par un artiste déterminé.
The Genius of Liberty on top of a tree — optical illusions at the Place de la Bastille /
Le Génie de la Liberté au sommet d’un arbre — illusions d’optique à la Place de la Bastille