Paris: Photographs by Geoffrey James

by Hubert Damisch, Geoffrey James (Photographer)

Hubert Damisch writes about the James' ability to photograph the ancient capital, with its intense modernity and bustling population, as if it were an archeological site. Nearly always empty of human presence, his photographs of the Porte Saint-Denis, the Boulevard Saint-Martin or the Opéra Bastille focus on the city itself. Damisch, a native Parisian, walks us through what James has seen. We see the quartiers that haunted André Breton and the Surrealists, the Passage de l'Opéra made famous by Aragon, the narrow streets so dear to Walter Benjamin and places which for Damisch himself hold strong childhood memories of the German Occupation. In forty-four tritone reproductions, some immediately identifiable as Parisian and others not, James reveals the immense force concealed within this city. In English and French.

112 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

About the author

Hubert Damisch (born 1928), is a French philosopher specialised in aesthetics and art history, and professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris from 1975 until 1996.

Damisch studied at the Sorbonne with Maurice Merleau-Ponty and, later, with Pierre Francastel. In 1967 he founded the Cercle d’histoire/théorie de l’art that would later become the CEHTA (Centre d'histoire et théorie des arts)[1] at the EHESS.[2]

Damisch has written extensively on the history and theory of painting, architecture, photography, cinema, theatre, and the museum. His works are landmark references for a theory of visual representations.