Paris. Portrait of a City

Last night, I spent about half an hour with this book. I was awed. Its photos and illustrations filled me with the same level of wonder, curiosity, and admiration that I feel for Paris itself. And it manages to do it without going overboard with gaudy fetishism of the city. Most images are impossibly mind-blowing, like the 1895 photo of a train that smashed through the second-story wall of a train station, which Antonin Neurdein executed with beautiful composition and technical perfection. Others tell how the Paris we know today came to be. An 1860 image depicts swaths of demolished medieval homes, buildings razed to make way for Haussman's renovation. The three-decade period remade the cramped, disorganized city with wide boulevards and the harmonious architecture of cream-colored stone buildings that now rise to uniform heights. Other photos add to the book's honest and not-too-romanticized vision of the city. Innovative fashion photos delight. Henri Cartier-Bresson's images appear, but not to serve a now-clichéd ideal of Paris. Instead, a handful of his lesser-known photos enrich the book without hard-selling the fanciful fairy tale of the city. "Paris. Portrait of a City" isn't the book I intended to buy. When a friend described an extraordinary book about Paris -- without providing the title -- this is what I purchased. It wasn't what I was looking for, but I fell in love. I can't wait to spend more time with it.

Such a lovely coffee table book for people who love Paris and traveling, in general. This book is very large and heavy but looks great in our book shelves.

Gorgeous book! Extraordinarily informative.

Got it for girlfriend after we went to Paris... should have gotten it before we went! It was fun to flip through and recognize places, as well as look for new places to visit next time. Wonderful pictures, and interesting articles as well.

Gorgeous thick coffee table book. Looks great on coffee table.

Good book

Not sure why a book would receive a downgraded review because of shipping issues, exactly. Mine arrived in pristine shape, cheaper and smarter than dragging it home on a flight from their Paris shop. All the great photographers and iconic images are represented here. Easily the best of their "Portrait of a City" books, although perhaps I am just partial to the City of Light. Easily worth 5 times the price.

Ok still love the book but pictured cover is topless woman on front not what shown so had to kind of style a candle around some of it but very large and gorgeous book! Loved the used portion of it too gives such character as if zi bought it on a trip. So good.