Nuances parisiennes

Garage Clothing coat (c/o Ivanhoe Cambridge)
& Other Stories tee
Realisation Par… skirt (similar)
Adidas sneakers
APC handbag
& Other Stories sunglasses
Elizabeth Lyn Jewelry necklace (similar)
Old Navy earrings (c/o Ivanhoe Cambridge)
Location: Ile Saint-Louis – Paris, France
Photos by Anastasia Abramova-Guendel

What I love most about photography is the way it allows us to see the world from someone else’s perspective. When you consider it, the fact that every person has an entirely unique world view is an incredible thing. The places we live and the lives we lead in them are complex, with subtle nuances that are mostly invisible to the eye. But a camera, with the right photographer behind it, can see those nuances and capture them.

Take Paris, for example. I’ve been there a dozen times at least, and spent a full two years of my life there in total. I see the city in my own particular way, mainly in shades of cream, black, brown and grey these days. And while I love that vision of Paris, I know it’s just one among millions. That’s what makes working with different photographers such an adventure – it allows me to see a place I love in an entirely different way.

I met Anastasia on Instagram in 2015, and we’ve shot together on almost all of my visits to Paris since that time. From our very first pastel-hued collaboration, which you can see here, to adventures with a giant magnolia tree (which actually involved me wearing sneakers and climbing around in the dirt,) we’ve both grown and changed. And our vision of Paris has changed, too. Anastasia sees the city in a much more colourful way than I do, embracing the red and turquoise hues in a way that I never would. I will never give up my devotion to neutral shades, but I acknowledge that, at times, it blinds me to the beauty of colour. These are not the photos I would have taken in these parts of Paris, and that’s why I love them; they show me a place I know so well in a completely different light.

The thing about beauty is that, like life, it is complicated and nuanced. Where I see beauty, the person next to me may not – but neither one of us is wrong, because beauty exists in innumerable forms, everywhere we look. Sometimes, we just need a little help from someone else to see it.