With its sharp blue light, New York is always living in the present, while Paris, lost in its winter rains and dim light, is a trip through time. From its greyness, I came to realize, there was many stories to emerge if you had, maybe, the eyes of a dog to see them. The night recalls Brassai, the hunching silhouette of Giacometti blurs in the winter fog, and Gertrude Stein’s exhausted guests wait for a cab rue de Fleurus, next to a contemporary princess commanding an Uber from her iPhone.
–Jean-Philippe Delhomme
In 2015 the French illustrator and writer Jean-Philippe Delhomme was asked by Zeit Magazin, the Sunday magazine of the German newspaper Zeit, to contribute a weekly column for the year about living in Paris. 2015 was an extraordinary and tumultuous year for Paris, with the Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan terrorist attacks in January and November, which Delhomme covered with sensitivity and poigance. In between he wrote and illustrated about the daily joys and frustrations of living in one of the world’s most beloved cities, from daily walks with his dog Astor to discover Picasso’s former studios to the invasions of Uber and joggers in the Luxembourg gardens.
As Delhomme writes in the introduction to the book: “…Paris, lost in its winter rains and dim light, is a trip through time. From its greyness, I came to realize, there was many stories to emerge if you had, maybe, the eyes of a dog to see them. The night recalls Brassaï, the hunching silhouette of Giacometti blurs in the winter fog, and Gertrude Stein’s exhausted guests wait for a cab on rue de Fleurus, next to a contemporary princess commanding an Uber from her iPhone.
This is the idea I proposed to Zeit, a diary in which I could reconcile my dream of a lost Paris with the unexpected of the present life.” Written with humor and insight, and beautifully illustrated, A Paris Journal is a diary of both the past and future of Paris as it documents the transformation of a celebrated way of life.
Price: US $50
ISBN: 978-0-9859958-4-3
Hardcover
9.5 x 11” (240 x 280 mm)
116 pages
54 color illustrations
Release date: November 2016
A Paris Journal is published in a limited edition of 1,000 copies.