Smiling at Epicurus

What is could just as easily not have been. It’s the opposite of destiny, or fate, to tell oneself that this instant could very well not have existed. I could have never lived it ! To start with, I could have not existed – or already be dead. But I’m alive, what luck !

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Philippe Graton
The shepherdess of my dreams

Like sheep in the fields of my slumber, my dreams are guided by a shepherdess. They follow her clear voice, her slender waist and her tanned legs wending their way through the tall grass. My sleep gambols from one dream to another, leapfrogging.

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Philippe Graton
Joy and the pigeon

Hey stupid pigeon, my head is no perch ! Do you take me for a statue, or yourself for the Holy Spirit ? Are you travel weary ? You want a selfie with me ? What next ?

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Philippe Graton
The act of seeing

What if the subject of the photo were not the true subject ? What if, by taking photos, I were looking to find out how my eyes work ? Discovering what catches my eye, and why. Where is a photo born ?

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Philippe Graton
Let’s prefer not to

There’s a problem with the health pass. There’s a problem with digital IDs. No one seems to be in the least bit worried, but we should be. We’re going through times of candid fanaticism…

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Philippe Graton
Last service

“Every Frenchman is a soldier and must defend the country.” Ever since this citizen’s principle stated by the Member of Parliament Jourdan in 1798, all young Frenchmen fulfilled their military service until 1996, the year of its abolition by Jacques Chirac.

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Philippe Graton
Walter Minus

Is this clear line drawing? No! Is it Pop Art? No! Comics? No, it’s Walter Minus! Within the world of illustration, Walter Minus is a superhero flying high above fashions and tendencies, not unlike William Sheller in the musical arts.

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Philippe Graton
I shot the sheriff

As it gets closer, the squad car slows down. I’m thinking, Bummer, here we go again. But I’m not doing anything wrong, just hanging on the side of the road with my camera. I’m a photographer, all I steal is shots. Just as the car drives past, I take the photo.

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Philippe Graton
Jolly Mayday

La Cambre is the largest wooded park in Brussels, the most beautiful as well as the most peaceful, with its lovers, frisbee players, families with babies, and youngsters yearning for a breath of fresh air and freedom.

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Philippe Graton
Lovers in Bucharest

I don’t know who they were nor where they were going with their flowers. I remember crossing the street to photograph them. I don’t speak Romanian, so I must have said something in French which they probably didn’t understand, but they smiled and offered themselves to the camera’s lens.

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Philippe Graton
Touché turtle

Hey you, the turtle in the aquarium, are you trying to figure out who’s hiding behind my big glass eye ? Another prisoner, same as you ; to each his cage, scrutinizing one another, looking to pierce the other’s mystery.

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Philippe Graton
Birthday Italian List

If I could choose, for my birthday I’d like architectural surprises on every corner, masterworks in every church, people who love to love, laugh, talk and sing, never any ugliness, never any mediocrity ; elegance, design, cuisine, cars, cinema…

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Philippe Graton
The best camera monopod

Either you’re a photographer or you’re not. And if you’re ready to do what it takes to get that perfect shot, then do like me : break a metacarpal bone into a couple of pieces, then ask the surgeon to place a nice strong metal pin and attach it with six screws.

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Philippe Graton
One-eyed puppy

Life is a one-eyed bitch, wrote Fabrice Caro. I met her as a puppy when she lay down at my feet. A big male dog, her father I think, finding her over-exuberant, had bitten her in the eye to calm her down.

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Philippe Graton
Finest afternoon

There are those softly scented moments like a Finest Afternoon, the closely-guarded formula of Comptoir Florian’s tea; the secret embrace of a fragrance, verdant spring, musky like desire itself, as floral as meadows hidden by brambles one dares not part.

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Philippe Graton
Moonstruck

The eclipse of August 11, 1999, the last total eclipse of the sun of the last millennium, mesmerized so many that the French postal service emitted a stamp to mark the occasion.

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Philippe Graton
Happy birthday David

David Coulthard just celebrated his fiftieth. With his thirteen F1 victories, he is the worthy successor to Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart – what’s in the water of their lochs that would explain why Scotland produces such champions?

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Philippe Graton
Getaway

Have you noticed that there are never any motorcycles on therapists’ parking lots? So in these sweeping schizophrenic times, get on your bike.

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Philippe Graton