The Film:
A hush, a darkness, and then the lilting rhythm of a Caribbean tune (‘Long Long Time’ by The Versatiles); so began my evening at the BFI watching Steve McQueen’s masterful film Mangrove. As the film’s first scenes washed across the screen, the loose ease of the soundtrack belied the gravity of the story soon to unfold.

Exhibition Review: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Revoir Paris (Seeing Paris Again) at Musée Carnavalet, Paris until October 31st, 2021.

I would never have guessed how popular a photography exhibition could be, until I found myself in the midst of a crowd, waiting for my turn to look at a square piece of printed paper, and having to fight to retain the place I had conquered for a moment longer, without giving in to the pressure on every side. Perhaps this is an exaggeration – but never had I ever seen such interest for a collection of photographs. The rooms dedicated to Cartier-Bresson at the Musée Carnavalet, the museum of the history of Paris, geometrically organised so as to offer the visitor interesting perspectives on to the next row of pictures, allow you to research, to look, to discover. What did Paris mean for Henri Cartier-Bresson? Why did he always come back? Why is it that his photography, in some mysterious way, resembles the city so much?