"Tout simplement, a beautiful photoblog of images of Paris"

Bonjour, and welcome to my photo blog. As a writer, I'd never considered myself a photographer. Or rather, I was as much a photographer as anyone in possession of a smartphone and natural curiosity about well, Everything. Shortly after I was invited to join World Photo Adventure as editor I contributed a piece on the colorful spice markets of Old Istanbul using an iphone 3G for the photos - it sounds so passé now but it worked great - and I was hooked.
 
FocusOnParis.com is my take on Paris, with an iphone: I try and post every day (sauf Sunday) on details that appeal to me or catch my eye. And as Paris is a city that speaks for itself, I've decided to let it do just that - mostly through images.
 
I thank you for your visits, and repeated visits, and hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoy taking, selecting, and posting them!
 
Barbara Pasquet James
U.S. lifestyle editor / urban explorer w/accent on Paris: food, fashion, culture, and coffee

- Contributor: The Good Life France Magazine
- Editor: WorldPhotoAdventure.com

Previously
- USA Today Paris City Guide: where to eat, where to stay, out on the town, insider tips (launched, updated quarterly)
- The American LLC: "Border Lines" - weekly international travel advice column
- Contributing editor: Boulevard France (London) - monthly luxury lifestyle magazine
More...

- Camera: iPhone - c'est tout
- Home base in Paris: Montmartre
- Home base in USA: NYC (212) 561-0227

Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest: @focusonparis

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- Click on photos to enlarge
- As a rule I do not publish comments

  For all media or rights inquiries, press trips/events and editorial, please contact me at WorldPhotoAdventure.com.

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"What a lovely looking site, full of grace, beauty, simplicity and sophistication...."
New York Arts Magazine

"A photographer who made a picture of a splendid moment, an accidental pose of someone or a beautiful scenery, is the finder of a treasure." Robert Doisneau

- food & drink -
- fashion & style -
- galleries & art -

- lifestyle & trends -

- boutiques & shop windows -

- gardens & parks -

- architecture & design -

- interiors & exteriors -

- street art & street life -

- door knobs & doorways -

- backstreets & sidestreets -

- cafés & cobblestones.... -

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Interview: Barbara Pasquet James

WPA Featured Photographer

Interview with full-sized photographs can be seen here

Truth be known, I am flattered and even somewhat amused to be invited as this month’s Featured Photographer. If you read the About page on my almost-photo-a-day blog FocusOnParis.com – I often skip Sundays – the first thing I point out is that I don’t consider myself a photographer, to be clear, and en plus I use an iphone. Now an iphone5. I know I know I should upgrade again but so far everything’s working fine and I simply point, frame, and shoot whatever strikes me, wherever I happen to be.

Though I’d dabbled in painting at university, for me, photography was a skill I admired from the sidelines. Working as a correspondent and writing travel-related articles had given me a brush with the medium, as I’d grab whatever camera was around to illustrate a piece. Just being in close contact with photographers – my brother Ralph, my husband, inspiring photo-blogger friends – had been rubbing off on me and I didn’t even know it. Years before I did a stint in Cadaqués, a hidden away white fishing village in Spain just south of the French border that had become a magnet to artists, not just for its natural beauty and light (the aptly named Light At The Edge Of The World with Yul Brynner and Kirk Douglas was filmed there) but because the eccentric surrealist Salvador Dali had made it his home. Openings and parties in galleries and artists’ studios seemed a daily given. The view from my balcony alone, overlooking the jewel-like bay and hilltop church, had made a subliminal impact. I discovered that many of the rock formations and objects that appeared so “surreal” in Dali’s paintings were, in fact, very real. The Mediterranean, depending on time of day and season, could change dramatically from greens to blues to reds.

It was illustrating an article about Istanbul’s vibrant spice markets using my cell phone's camera that made me realize I enjoyed this. Immensely. I have F-stop phobia and the iphone made it easy. I began to play with images that played on light. I strove for minimal edits and cropping, and when I launched FocusOnParis.com, simplicity was my motto. I would post photographs of Paris, my city, and keep captions brief so as not to distract from images.

Blues play an important role in my favorite photographs and strong colors attract me. The blog has been up less than two years but receives many visitors, increasing daily. I’ve gotten some interesting offshoot (pun intended) offers and assignments, and hope to keep it going.

What do you love about photography?
The fact that I now “see” things I’d not have noticed before; a corner of a building, a parked bicycle, a door, juxtaposed colors… Many otherwise unremarkable little things as I go about my day have become favorite subjects.

Dream shoot?
A photo safari in Africa. I hear it’s life changing.

Time with Camera?
Since 2010, the year of my Istanbul Ephipany. But I didn’t start shooting more consistently until 2015, the year I launched FocusOnParis.com. Looking back I see an evolution in the quality of my photos.

Favourite Subject?
Paris streets, street scenes, vistas, cafés, cobblestones, architecture, art, food…. The subjects of my photo blog.

Favourite Piece of Kit?
I’m dying to say Hasselblad or vintage Rolleiflex (two in my husband’s arsenal) but as of this writing it’s my faithful iphone5.

What is the first thing you notice about people?
The mouth. Then their eyes.

Mountain cabin or beach house?
Beach house but not just any beach.

Last book you read?
His Mother! by Sandy Richardson, just released. I contributed a chapter.

If I could travel in time?
The day before my brother died. As for another era, La Belle Époque in Paris à la Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris.

What is the furthest you’ve been from home?
On The Other Side, in a spiritual dream.

If you were a crayon, which colour would you be?
Turquoise blue.

Top of your bucket list?
Right now? Louisiana. Exploring the Bayou, old plantations, local specialties / recipes, what’s left of its French culture. Other destination, scheduled soon: the “heel” of Italy’s boot, the magnificent Puglia region with stops in Polignano, Trani, Ostuni, Alberobello with its troglodyte architecture…. I will travel far for good coffee and hear that even the humblest café on the tiniest village squares there serves insanely flavorful espresso.

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