cover image Paris

Paris

Rene Champollion, Herve Champollion. Vendome Press, $60 (8pp) ISBN 978-0-86565-091-6

In this book of 193 clean and proficient, but largely uninspired, color pictures of Paris, Champollion concentrates on well-known subjects that have been photographed often before. Shots of the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur and Eiffel Tower lead inexorably to the Boulevard St. Germain and the ubiquitous Champs Elysees. Parks as familiar as the Luxembourg Gardens and the Bois de Boulogne give way to smiling waiters at Aux Deux Magots. Never far from the beaten track, we see street performers outside the Beaubourg, and the Venus de Milo inside the Louvre. Paris is a lovely city, the Pont Alexandre III is a lovely bridge. But another picture of the Moulin Rouge? Champollion ( Nouveau Guide de la Photographie ) pays careful attention to symmetrical detail but rarely raises his photos above the level of large, exceptionally clear postcards. Notes describe plates in the preceding chapter. (Dec.)