A plane ticket to Paris is an invitation I have yet to turn down, especially not during my favorite week of the year. So I found myself in Paris again for another fashion week somehow, this time without a job to keep me afloat but a camera kit and just enough hope.
Paris has strong energy currents. It’s easy to wind through her tales until I come out on the other side of the city and realize a thousand lifetimes have passed between the walls of the Louvre to the red leather seats in an old jazz bar… or underground watching Moodyman play Prince with one of my favorite writers alive on the planet or seeing fashion week shows and then experiencing intimate previews with people who already feel like family.
To avoid paying the 600/night that is average for hotels during fashion week and expierience something new, I stayed in the auberge de jeunesse Paris Jules Ferry. This hostel was near Le Marais and it was 30 euros a night. I made the mistake of thinking a two-bed room would be better than the 4-bed rooms on my last night and ending up sliding right back out the door when my bunkmate starting chanting in her sleep. She also was sleeping on the bed frame with a mat and had put the mattress under the bed. I later asked her about it and she is an amazing human who I learned a lot from and hope so see in Costa Rica someday. Travel tip: there are lockers in the basement you can use for two euros each time you open it. That’s where I kept my luggage and extra camera gear during the day. I carried my laptop and cameras with me during the day, and when I wasn’t shooting I worked from hotels, cafes and museums.
“I asked if I could photograph him with my polaroid. He look at me funny, ‘Why? It’s women’s fashion week.’”
I was eating near the auberge de juenesse when I saw a young man walking and I liked his outfit so I asked if I could photograph him with my polaroid. ‘May I photograph you?’ He looked at me funny, ‘Why? It’s women’s fashion week.’ I thought, lol, touché, but we snapped the pic anyway. We met up with his friend across the street and shot some more while the polaroids developed.
Just before we parted ways, he pulled this piece of paper out of his pocket, the story of this scent—John Galliano himself, on mutiny.
the mutiny and the bounty / by hamish bowles and photography by annie leibovitz / VOGUE
the mutiny and the bounty / by hamish bowles and photography by annie leibovitz / VOGUE
‘mutiny’. Paris 2018. Ilford XP2 Super 400 scan.
The rest of the photos are polaroids and Ilford XP2 disposable scans from an event by Dazed Beauty and Maison Margiela, hosted by my new life hero Samirah, to celebrate the launch of the fragrance. To me, this fragrance represents this trip to Paris and my personal form of mutiny, hope and determination.
‘my mutiny’. Paris 2018. Ilford XP2 Super 400
‘the art of appreciating life’. Paris 2018. Ilford XP2 Super 400 scan.