1996, from my preface to Paris-London
If I had to sum up what makes Paris photogenic, I would say that it cames from it’s multiple facets. One can observe this on any street corner by looking in any direction through a viewfinder: the details pile up in the frame and are repeated as if in mirrors, disparate but always harmonious (excepting the creations of contemporary design, but at the time there were not so many of those). This effect can be underlined by using a telephoto lens, which flattens perspectives and compresses distances. I bought myself one with a revolver-type handle and a trigger to control the focus. The machine was rather like a bazooka – a fact which cost one of my colleagues his life when he tried to use it during the Budapest uprising. In Paris, the only trouble it brought me was a few angry looks from customers at Galeries Lafayette whom I picked out in the pre-Christmas crowds.
1956, Paris, tele-lens, porte Saint-Denis