Paris Park Photographs

Paris Park Photographs is a collection of stunning images from a dozen public parks and gardens in and near France's capital city, referencing the pleasures and pitfalls of wandering alone amidst trees, plants, and sculpture. The book invites closer scrutiny of the encounters awaiting us at the edges of the well-worn paths defining our daily lives, and its design is inspired by Walker Evans's 1938 classic work, American Photographs.

Format: Hardback
Length: 120 pages
Publication date: 28 March 2022
Publisher: George F. Thompson

Paris Park Photographs presents a captivating collection of stunning images from a dozen public parks and gardens located in and around France's capital city. By venturing into the same places that photographer Eugène Atget (1857–1927) immortalized a century ago, Michael Kolster explores the joys and challenges of wandering alone amidst trees, plants, and sculptures, in both unkempt and formally designed spaces, tempered by the awareness that the modern world, with all its congestion, is just a short distance away. These intimate yet inherently expansive views of Paris parks invite us to delve deeper into the encounters awaiting us at the edges of the well-worn paths that define our daily lives. While few people venture into the frame of Kolster's photographs, the promise of a renewed sense of hope and community lies in the details of his visual encounters and the moments of heightened attention he captures. Each picture serves as a moment in time, even as the sequence suggests a choreography of place that can vary daily, influenced by the changing moods and light of each park. Paris Park Photographs is presented in a bilingual English/French edition and concludes with an afterword by Michelle Kuo. Notably, the book's design is inspired by Walker Evans's 1938 classic work, American Photographs, making Kolster's work of immediate interest to photo and book collectors alike.

Dimension: 229 x 203 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781938086885