Latin Rhythms at the Luxembourg Garden

Last Saturday was unexpectedly and delightfully musical!

Tom made arrangements for us to meet colleagues on Saturday, May 31st at the snack bar near the Sénat kiosk in the Luxembourg Garden.

The weather was perfect as we set out for a leisurely stroll to the garden. When we arrived, we found a full-fledged concert of Latin American music underway at the kiosk!

We didn't want to be late for our rendezvous, so we didn't pay much attention to the trio that was playing mellow music when we arrived. But as our meeting broke up, we heard strains of "Oye Como Va" as played by Santana coming from the kiosk and decided that we should go over and investigate.

Carlos de Nicaragua y Familia was the band performing this Latin rock classic. Their repertoire is a mix of salsa and reggae music.

Carlos was intent on getting the crowd up on its feet (French audiences can be very quiet even when they are thoroughly enjoying themselves) and he left the bandstand several times to get "up close and personal" to attendees.

Carlos de Nicaragua y Familia
© Discover Paris!

Carlos de Nicaragua
© Discover Paris!
He was especially attentive to two children who planted themselves at the edge of the stage to get a closer look at the band.

Children watching the performance
© Discover Paris!

Carlos and the kids
© Discover Paris!
I later learned that Carlos' full name is Carlos Wiltshire. He was born in Nicaragua, lives in the Le Havre area of France, and studied at the Université de Paris X in Nanterre. He fought in the Nicaraguan Revolution.

As Carlos and his band vacated the stage after their performance, we began looking for a poster or some other kind of information about the event. We walked over to the mixing table and saw a list of eight performers for the day:

Argentina - Cuarteto Cedron
Venezuela - José Alejandro Delgado
Ecuador - Trío Diamante Latino
Nicaragua - Carlos de Nicaragua y Familia
Colombia - Nancy Murillo
Bolivia - sextet (name not listed)
Chile - Kerube (folklore group)
Dominican Republic - violinist (name not listed)

We surmised that we missed the first two groups and that the group that was playing when we arrived at the garden was Trío Diamante Latino.

Tom spotted a colorfully dressed woman nearby and guessed that she might be one of the performers. He approached her, engaged her in conversation, and found that he was right.

The woman was Nancy Murillo. She lives in Paris and speaks fluent French. She was kind enough to give me a copy of her latest CD - Tia Yova - and pose for a photo with me.

Monique and Nancy Murillo
© Discover Paris!
We stayed to listen for the first couple of numbers that Nancy sang and were happy that we did! The crowd was warmed up after Carlos's performance and it took little effort on Nancy's part to get people up and dancing.

Nancy Murillo
© Discover Paris!
Two young women joined her on the stage to perform a routine...

Nancy Murillo and company
© Discover Paris!
...and then Nancy descended the stairs to engage the audience.

Several people hopped up and began salsa dancing. The couple pictured below was especially good!

Dancing to the sounds of Nancy Murillo 1
© Discover Paris!

Dancing to the sounds of Nancy Murillo 2
© Discover Paris!

Dancing to the sounds of Nancy Murillo 3
© Discover Paris!
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and regretted that we could not stay until the end of the concert.

Click here to learn more about Carlos de Nicaragua (information in English).

Click here to learn more about Nancy Murillo (information in French).




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Black Paris Profiles™ II: Christian Bordey - Part 2

Last week, I introduced you to Christian Bordey, portrait photographer. In the second part of my interview with him, Christian discusses his favorite photography project and his life in the City of Light.

Christian Bordey
© Cécile Renaud

Though he lives and works in Paris, Christian feels more at home in Guadeloupe and more widely in countries with a black majority population. There are several reasons for this: he cites culture first and foremost, then “way of life” and “sense of fun.” “It's a bit cliché,” he says, but the sun is also an important reason that he prefers Guadeloupe. He describes himself as a “photo addict” and because he prefers images with bright sun and blue sky, he can take pictures all the time there. Also, he still has family in Guadeloupe and wants to spend more time with them.

He began to take pictures of his home island Terre-de-Bas in October 2012. Not having visited there for six years, the trip was like a rediscovery for him. Because there are few distractions on the island, he took photos to combat boredom. Then he came up with the idea of creating a book of these photos to show to his mother. He is working on photo books for two additional Guadeloupian islands – Marie-Galante and La Désirade – at the suggestion of Los Angeles gallery owner Michelle Joan Papillion.

At present, the "Terre de Bas" book is Christian’s preferred project. This is because it is intensely personal. He calls Terre de Bas his holiday paradise because this is where his mother comes from and where he spent all his holidays as a child. During his last stay in Guadeloupe, his brother introduced him to the neighborhood where his father grew up. Because he grew up without his father, he plans to focus his lens on this area in future photo shoots.

The Way to the Beach
© Christian Bordey
Photography has taken Christian many places in the world. When he was a photo assistant – taking care of equipment lists and managing the lighting for photography sessions – he traveled Spain, England and Italy for magazines such as Madame Figaro, Elle, and Vanity Fair. For photo shoots for English catalogs, he traveled to Brazil, California, and some islands in the Anglophone Caribbean (Bahamas, Barbados). He prefers sunny locations (especially Guadeloupe) and is now thinking of traveling to take pictures on the African continent.

One of the most unusual shoots that Christian worked on was in Qatar. He went there with Maher Attar, a Lebanese photographer based in Paris who works for the royal family. At the time, Christian was Attar’s light assistant. They took photos of the king's daughter and the images were printed on porcelain and offered to guests. During his free time, he took the opportunity to show another side of life in Qatar, the harsh reality of immigrants working on construction sites in stifling heat.

When the conversation turned to life in France, Christian had lots to say. He moved to Paris with his mother when he was three years old. Some of his most vivid memories of his early days there were of going to the discount clothing store Tati. He recalls that the store was often full and because he was small, it impressed him “a lot.” He also remembers that people from all backgrounds frequented Tati in those days, and he commented that this has not changed.

He currently lives in the Paris suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine and he likes his neighborhood because it is close to all the conveniences of everyday life and provides a neighborhood life of its own. It is the first place that he lived when he arrived in France and he says that it “is a bit of a nod to my story.”

His favorite area in Paris is Châtelet les Halles because of the shopping, recreational activities such as cinema, and the huge mix of people that you find in the quarter because of the efflux from the suburbs at Châtelet Les Halles RER station. Only a few meters away, you can find a more “bobo” atmosphere with rue Montorgueil and trendy restaurants and cafés.

Christian rides a scooter – a popular means of transportation in Paris. He likes this because it gives him a sense of freedom and saves him time. But he doesn’t shun other ways of getting around. When he worked at Studio Astre, he took the metro to work because it was the most direct way to get from his home to the studio. He prefers taking a car when going long distances, particularly when the sun goes down.

When asked about the Guadeloupian community in Paris, Christian said that because of the history between France and the Caribbean and because Guadeloupe is still French, “forty years of immigration and homecoming are still valid.” Among the places that he meets people in the community is in the hair salon, “a place of passage of the black community.” He says that jazz clubs provide a very active scene for Caribbean. Occasionally, he’ll eat at La Kaz, a casual restaurant near Châtelet that serves Caribbean specialties.

Christian has the following advice for young photographers who are considering moving to Paris and establish a career there:

The best advice is quite simple: work, patience, and above all, perseverance. And maximize your social connections – get out and be seen in the right places.

Fogo de Deus
© Christian Bordey
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Black Paris Profiles™ II: Christian Bordey - Part 1

My friend Kathie Foley-Meyer introduced to Guadeloupe-native Christian Bordey less than two weeks ago, when she and her husband Irv swung through Paris as part of their extended Christmas holiday travels. We had a fascinating conversation over coffee and I knew that I had to bring Christian’s story to you via the Entrée to Black Paris blog!

Christian Bordey
© Cécile Renaud

Christian is a photographer who specializes in portraits. He started taking photos at the age of twenty-one with a camera that belonged to his father. He recalls asking if he could borrow his dad’s camera equipment, to which his father replied, "Of course." He then began doing portraits in a neighborhood studio and taking photos at his school in Paris’ 14th arrondissement.

He began his career by working in a traditional black and white photo lab, where he discovered what he calls “the magic of developing and photo printing.” He worked alongside acclaimed photographers Jeanloup Sieff (portraitist) and Peter Lindbergh (fashion photographer), drying their contact sheets by using an old process called “glazing.”

Christian worked at the fashion photo studio Astre for six years, where he served as the set assistant and the liaison between the team and the studio. He learned to deal with the photographer, makeup artist, hairdresser, indeed, everyone involved in the shoots. It was a grueling task but very rewarding, because that's where he learned how to build a light, manage a team, and create a relationship of trust with the person photographed.

Next, he worked with fashion photographer Fred Pinet – it was with Pinet that he learned to photograph in daylight. He went on to launch his solo career in fashion photography but now favors doing portraits. To his knowledge, no other Guadeloupian photographer does the kind of work that he does.

Christian has built quite a name and reputation for himself and works quite a bit from referrals. Because the relationship between photographer and subject is built on trust, the referrals indicate that his current and past clients trust him enough to recommend him. Clients have even come to him without even having seen his work, based on these referrals.

I asked Christian what distinguishes portraiture from fashion photography for him. He responded:

Fashion photography highlights the clothing, makeup, etc. of the time, using the best of each of these elements to create an image. For the portrait, the attitude is much the same, but in the service of a personality. Portraits are more timeless because they reflect an emotion.

In looking at Christian’s portfolio, I observed dozens of striking, sometimes even haunting, B&W portraits. But I also saw lots of color photos – of ad campaigns, music events, and particularly, of landscapes. Christian told me that when he travels, he prefers photographing in color because he prefers authenticity and wants to do only minimal retouches. For many of his portraits, however, he uses B&W for classicism.

Among the most expressive and enchanting portraits in the portfolio are those of several reggae artists. They are inspired by the classic portraits of jazzmen in black and white.

Earl China Smith
© Christian Bordey
Christian recounted the following about how he began photographing these artists:

I've always loved music and reggae in particular. My first CD purchase was UB40’s Labour of Love II. A few years later I began my recreational photography and then worked for a professional photo studio.

Then I had the idea to mix what I can do with what I like. This “clicker” emerged with a photo portrait of Bob Marley taken by Annie Lebovitz, with whom I worked. Annie had set up a mobile studio close to Marley’s concert and had waited three days to get his picture. So I thought, “Why not me?”

In July 2009, I contacted a reggae festival in the south of France and presented my project. It worked!

Perhaps not surprisingly, Christian’s favorite hobby is to go to live music concerts. He loves listening to the voices of the singers and hearing the musicians' work “because without them, music does not exist.” The height of his enjoyment comes when he attends music festivals – he loves the excitement, the encounters, the photo opportunities...

…which led to the topic of OneOneOne Exclusive Conscious Wear, a fair trade, ecologically-conscious French clothing line supported by “Reggae Artists, Musicians, Dancers, & Lovers.” Christian is among their supporters:

I have met many artists who wear OneOneOne creations at concerts and festivals and as soon as I could, I sent them pictures to promote their creations. I made this picture at Terre de Bas, with a tripod that my father bought in New Caledonia 40 years ago. My brother gave it to me last year. The name “OneOneOne” comes from Marcus Mosiah Garvey, a black prophet glorified by some reggae artists who said, "One Aim, One God, One Destiny."

Christian Bordey wearing OneOneOne apparel
© Christian Bordey
Now Christian is thinking of making a series of portraits of dance hall singers originating from the French Caribbean, this time in color.

Next week, read about Christian's preferred photo project and his life in Paris.

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