More recent information: follow me on Instagram: @jalb.

 

I do portraits for free, at the Abracadabar, 123 avenue Jean Jaurès, Paris 19e, some saturday afternoons, please write at contact@vip2me.fr to confirm. Latest photos for this project are at vip2me.fr/

 

Mon Expo en Vitrine Photographic Festival

 

I curated and coordinated the last two editions of Mon Expo en Vitrine, a photo festival around the bassin de la Villette in Paris, organised by Au Tour du Canal de l'Ourcq.

 

The bassin de la Villette is part of the Paris canals, a large area of water between la Rotonde built by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux in 1789 and the lifting bridge on the rue de Crimée. Robert Doisneau used to make portraits of Jacques Prévert there and followed the mysterious Pierrette d'Orient in the butchers-frequented bars.

 

Now the bassin is harboring barges that host artistic and cultural activities, concerts, theatre, film projections... Pic-nics on the quai de la Loire have become very trendy.

 

The spirit of the festival is to turn the bassin de la Villette into a street gallery, during one month, with exhibits in the public space, or in the windows of stores and restaurants, so that visitors and the people living there can walk around and see them.

 

The festival encourages blending artists, amateurs and professionals, playing with non-traditional media, turning daily spaces into ephemeral galleries, as well as interactive events.

 

For instance:

 

Photographer-writers reading their works while projecting their photos: Anne Savelli www.danslavillehaute.net/

 

Photography workshop: Katrin Guntershausen's sténopé workshop www.guntershausen.com/photo/

 

Participative photo shoots: Pierre-Yves Le Strat's You-Cube www.you-cube.fr/

 

Platic arts and photography workshop: Doriane Souilhol and Pierre-Hadrien Poulouin otniproject.blogspot.com/

 

Artistic installations: Sophie Beneteau's dark box inviting visitors to see her photos of the hidden parts of barges.

 

More information on the web site of the 2011 edition monexpoenvitrine.com/ and the Facebook page www.facebook.com/mon.expo.en.vitrine

 

Pots photo dans le 19e arrondissement de Paris

 

Every other month I host a "Pot photo", a friendly meet with other photographers around a drink in a nice place of the 19th district : stay tuned by joining www.facebook.com/groups/310447069885/ or pot-photo.posterous.com/ if you're not of Facebook.

 

Current project: I <3 LOVE

 

A series of portraits about women and the heart, current state : www.flickr.com/photos/jalb/sets/72157627156779511/

 

Projects in background: portraits for you and for me

 

In exchange of personal or professional portraits for you, I make some for two projects of mine: "Looking at the light" and "A few of your favorite things".

 

Contact me for details: jalb@pobox.com.

 

Example of a "Looking at the light" portrait:

 

Example of a "A few of your favorite things" portrait:

 

Stolen Moments

 

Being quite busy, in my free time I do "Stolen Moments" photography - keeping an eye on the good light, mostly the available and indoors kind.

 

(I also love this Oliver Nelson tune.)

 

So what I do is mostly unprepared snapshots.

 

"‘I photograph to find out what the world looks like in a photograph.’" Garry Winogrand

 

Groups

 

I administrate a few groups on Flickr:

 

Jardins Partagés in Paris.

 

Contax T2 www.flickr.com/groups/contax_t2/

 

Marbles flickr.com/groups/marbles

 

Paris 19e flickr.com/groups/paris19

 

Fuji Neopan flickr.com/groups/neopan

 

Wines You Like - Labels Scrapbook www.flickr.com/groups/wines-you-like/

 

Shooting around in all directions with a digital camera www.flickr.com/groups/dont-think-just-shoot/

 

Activities

 

Family activities in Paris and networking with parents around: neoparents.org

 

There's a Neoparents group on Flickr to share photos: flickr.com/groups/neoparents

 

I like

 

There is no profile section for art in general, so: Fischli & Weiss, Paul Granjon, Louise Bourgeois, Jean Tinguely, Marcel Duchamp.

 

Still reading?

 

Discovered photography with my kids, bought a Canon G2 after too many film processing expenses and mishaps, and enjoyed it a bit too much :-)

 

I went back to film with a few Contax cameras and Zeiss lenses, affordable second hand gear found on eBay. A friend lent me his Hasselblad 500C/M. I like how these lenses let the light through.

 

I'm using a Canon 5D mark II with the 24-70 f/2.8 L, and manual focus Zeiss + Leica lenses with adaptors.

 

In my pocket at all times there's a Fujifilm Finepix f31fd.