Capture

capture

Capture

This book was produced during the designer’s residency at Citè International des Arts in Paris, France. This study is a part of a series of exercises in which the designer explores visual, conceptual, formal or procedural ways of working by executing a project in a single day. This is project 1 of 30. Documentation and writings surrounding this series can be found at nicolefoxdesign.com.

Typeset in Walbaum. Pagination hand drawn. Digitally printed in France on a borrowed inkjet printer. The paper is a unlabeled remnant from past studio resident.

The quote on page 32 is from section two of chapter eight in Alain de Botton’s book The Art of Travel. © Nicole Fox, 2018

Capture

a study by nicole fox

1. Musee d’Orsay 11 (BOTTOM ), 16, 17

2. Saint Chapelle 26 (BOTTOM)

3. Palais Garnier 22, 24, 25

4. Musee de l’Orangerie 18, 19, 20, 21, 23

5. Notre Dame Cathedral 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, (TOP)

6. Luxembourg Gardens 27

7. Ponte Alexandre III 26 (TOP)

8. Louvre Museum 9, 10 (BOTTOM), 14

9. Le Marais 8, 11(TOP)

10. Eiffel Tower 12, 13, 28, 29

“A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is to wish to hold on to it, to possess it and give it weight in one's life.

There is an urge to say, ‘I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.’”

—Alain de Botton

The photographs in this book were created in response to the urge to consume beauty — an itch as urgent and physical as hunger or thirst — and as a reflection on the failure of photography to satiate that desire.

In a single day, I visited Trip Advisor’s top 10 things to do in Paris, walking more than ten miles and pausing at each site no longer than 15 minutes. At each site, I threw the camera in the air to capture a randomized image, ritualizing the otherwise documentarian process of photo-tourism. Ironically, the prolonged shutter speed and tumbling camera movement produce images that evoke the haste with which we consume these highly commodified landmarks. Simultaneously, the obfuscation of the original site encourages prolonged engagement with the image, an investigatory exploration that reverses the tourist’s initial haste to consume.