Paris Revisited

PARIS REVISITED

PRÉFACE

Pour moi personnellement, Paris est la personification d’un beau premier amour dont le souvenir est ineffaçable.

Quand je faisais mes premiers pas rêveurs en tant que photographe débutant, j’ai en quelque sorte « forcé » une belle rencontre inoubliable avec Jeanloup Sieff au Café de Flore. Cette véritable icône de la photographie fut une de mes premières sources d’inspiration. La façon cinématographique dont il faisait vibrer sur photo la vie pas tellement quotidienne à travers des prises de vue et des personnages hors du commun, n’a cessé de m’intriguer. Dans le temps je vivais dans les rues de Gainsbourg et d’Aznavour. De Cathérine Deneuve et de Jeanne Moreau.

Inspiré par le microcosme de Saint-Germain, le flegme des garçons au Deux Magots et au Café de Flore, l’ambiance frénétique de la Brasserie Lipp, je me suis formé l’idée de créer un jour ma propre interprétation de la vie parisienne marquée par cette inimitable nonchalance si propre aux cafés parisiens.

Paris est une femme; Londres est un homme. Paris vous enchante impitoyablement, sournoisement, agilement… Londres vous laisse retourner chez vous avec vos bagages. Paris les a soigneusement enfermés dans son placard… Cet ouvrage est une ode à cette femme fougueuse. Je vous laisse découvrir cette dame charmante à travers un rythme bien réfléchi d’images spontanées.

Oui, je vous invite à y aller, à vous y amuser, à déguster et à faire des découvertes. Tombez amoureux, mais attention, vous allez toujours y retourner!

Henk van Cauwenbergh

PREFACE

For me Paris is the personification of a beautiful and notoriously ineffaceable first love.

In the late seventies, when I was still seeking my voice as a photographer, head in the clouds, I forced a vital meeting with Jeanloup Sieff at Café de Flore in Paris. It left a long-lasting impression. The cinematic way in which this iconic photographer managed to capture extraordinary life, his captivating perspectives and the colourful characters populating his scenes, fascinated me without end.

At the time I lived in the streets of Serge Gainsbourg and Aznavour. I walked the same paths as the legendary Cathérine Deneuve and Jeanne Moreau. Inspired by the microcosm that is Saint-Germain, the casual, somewhat careless attitude of the bartenders in Les Deus Magots and Café de Flore, the boisterous ambiance in Brasserie Lipp... the idea came to mind to make my own record of the inimitable nonchalance of Parisian cafés. To capture the unique way of life in the Parisian métropole tout court.

Paris is a woman, London is a man. Paris charms mercilessly, cunningly. She gets under your skin. London will let you return home with your luggage, while Paris will keep your clothes in her closet.

This book is my ode to that passionate woman. Through a well-thought-out sequence of seemingly casual images, I present you with my vision of this enchanting temptress. Taste and discover. Fall in love! But beware that once she has you in her spell, she will never let you go....

Henk van Cauwenbergh

CAFE DE FLORE

172, boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés, F-75006 Paris

Fondé en 1887 le «Café de Flore» doit son nom à une sculpture de la petite divinité qui se dressait de l’autre côté du si charmant Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Le mouvement surréaliste y a vu le jour et toute une succession d’évènements historiques s’y sont déroulés.

En 1913, Apollinaire et Salmon transforment le rez-de-chaussée en salle de rédaction pour la revue «Les soirées de Paris». Même en temps de guerre, le Flore conservera sa place de bureau artistique. Au printemps 1917, les jeunes poètes Philippe Soupault et André Breton y rencontrent Aragon. Apollinaire y crée les fondements du groupe dadaïste. La même année, il invente le mot surréalisme. Lorsque Tristan Tzara séjourne à Paris, il s’arrête au Flore sachant qu’Apollinaire avait lui-même vécu sur place et s’y est éteint en 1918. En 1922 le comité de rédaction de la revue «Le Divan» se rassemble au Flore et vers la même époque André Malraux y sirote son Pernod glacé.

A la fin du XXème siècle, la relève artistique et litteraire continue de fréquenter ce lieu empli d’histoire: Claire Chazal, Catherine Deneuve, Sonia Rykiel, Jeanloup Sieff, Sharon Stone, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp... la liste des célébrités est tellement longue!

Founded in 1887, Café de Flore owes its name to the sculpture of Flora, the little goddess of flowers, that stood on the opposite side of the lovely Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The surrealist movement was born here and a succession of other historical events also took place in the cafe.

In 1913, Apollinaire and Salmon transformed the ground floor into a newsroom for the magazine Les soirées de Paris. Even in times of war, le Flore kept its function as an intellectual’s meeting place. The young poets, Philippe Soupault and André Breton met Aragon here in the spring of 1917. It was here that Apollinaire created the foundations of the Dadaist group and, in the same year, invented the word “surrealism”. When Tristan Tzara lived in Paris, he came to the Café de Flore knowing that Apollinaire himself had lived and, in 1918, died there. In 1922, the editorial board of the magazine Le Divan would meet at the Flore and in the same period André Malraux would sit here sipping his iced Pernod.

At the end of the twentieth century, the more recent generation of artistic and literary society continued to frequent this historic venue: Claire Chazal, Catherine Deneuve, Sonia Rykiel, Jeanloup Sieff, Sharon Stone, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp... the list of celebrities goes on and on!

THE ARTIST

I chose Delphine to work on the book covers because she brings her Art ‘out of the box’ and that is exactly the way I like to make my images.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Henk van Cauwenbergh (°1958) studied communication sciences at the Brussels University and completed his studies in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His encounter with top photographer Peter Lindbergh in Arles (F) was directive for his further career.

Two years later, van Cauwenbergh opened The Loft Fashion Factory, his day light studio in Antwerp (B). Ever since he is an internationally renowned fashion photographer.

In 2006 he published a first and very successful book, Le Matin, in which he portrays 100 women of 19 different nationalities during their morning ritual.

Four years later, in 2010, he released a second title, called Rencontre, a visual tribute to Jean-Baptiste Jalabert, a famous French matador and Francesca Dolci, a ballerina working in Monaco.

In 2014 came the first volume in a very successful and stylish city impressions series: Les Brasseries de Paris. This book was at the same time a tribute to his friend Charles Aznavour. One year later Henk van Cauwenbergh celebrates the capital of the UK in Exquisite Venues of London, soon followed by The Natiebazen, a portrait of the most important entrepreneurs in the Antwerp harbour.

In 2016 he releases a book on the Belgian seaside town Bredene and depicts the Amazing Flavours of Amsterdam, the third volume in the city series. In 2017 he turns his lense to his beloved Antwerp, one of Belgium’s most beautiful cities. Wonderful Antwerp is an impressive photographic anthology of a treasured city and at the same time a visual homage to his late father.