Paris, France

November 17, 1945

Dear Pudge,

These photos were all taken in Paris in Oct. I don't have the location for all of them but I have duplicates of some and I'll give them a number and send you the info later.

#1 - City Hall, Paris. Had a filter for this shot.

#2 - Very much photographed Notre Dame. Filter on this one too. Heavy clouds and rapidly changing light.

#3 - More of same. Wish people would go the same way.

#4 - I backed into somebody's doorway for this one. They thought I was crazy but I wanted to get in that corner of the store canopy. Filter didn't help too much here. The light was getting bad too.

#5 - Very common scene along the Seine River. A good shot but a bad photo. If I'd used my head I could have focused out near where the two gents are ambling along and got both the Church (Notre Dame) and the artist reasonably sharp. Cover the crane and you'll get a rather nice picture. The artist is Francis Ruh. I don't know much more about him than that he has some connection with the Gobelin Tapestry factory here. He speaks only French so we didn't get very far.

#6,7 - I was interested in the bookstalls and trees and risked my neck in the middle of the street to get these. (If you know French drivers you'll understand that was a real risk!) Anyway, they didn't come out the way I wanted.

#8,9,10 - I took these shots of this church (name unknown) before the above. The light was very bad. It was late and kept fluctuating as you can see. Filter on these.

#11,12 - Pont Neuf. Although this means "New Bridge" it is actually the oldest of the Paris bridges. I made some sketches here previously for a possible painting and took the photos for a record.

#13 - I think I made this from the above but perhaps not. Anyway, the right side of the picture is the "Left Bank." I think I had a filter here but it was bad light and nothing seems to have happened.

#14 - I hopped around to get this shot of the mob watching this bird work only to have them dissolve, leaving this lone, disinterested spectator.

#15 - "Child at Play" - Obviously phony because I made the sketch with the flat side of a Conte crayon, not the Conte pencil I am using. But it looks good in the picture, doesn't it? That little clip alongside saved the day. Just a few minutes before I was taking pictures on the embankment above when the wind lifted my sketch pad from its resting place and dropped it 20 feet to the Quai below. Had I not had it fastened with this clip, my masterpieces would even now be floating down the Seine along with the lowly barges.

#16 - Very late in the day. Had a filter on to catch the clouds and a slow speed to try to eke out the light without losing too much sharpness, hence, the phantom rider.

#17 - My favorite shot of all. I want to make an enlargement of this. This is the back of Notre Dame too and is just a little beyond where the artist (in #5) was working.

#18,19 - Two street scenes. I think I had a filter on the first but nothing happened. It was quite late. I didn't have one for the second picture which shows a corner near the Rome metro station.

#20 - "The Languid One." On a balcony looking toward the Etoile. No filter, too bad.

#21 - "The Conqueror." I look as Napoleon would have it he had captured Moscow. Obviously too much puffed rice for breakfast.

Love,

Bob