Moon + Venus

We had a double outing this afternoon to two exhibitions close together in Paris's 16th arrondissement.

Returning late, down a narrow street we glimpsed the planet Venus close to the "old moon in the new moon's arms",* as the saying goes--with an airplane paying tribute (which I perceived only afterwards). I switched to 6400 ISO, hence the noise (hardly mitigated by my noise reduction program).

The first exhibition was photographs by Gisele Freund from 1933-1940 in Paris--mainly portraits, including some in color at the end of the period. Her subjects were writers and intellectuals, the most renown of the day, and the prints are marvelous. A link with more information is here. Freund emigrated from Germany to Paris in 1933 and moved on to the new world in 1940--so the show illuminates a brief but scintillating minor interlude in the history of photography.

The second show, less inspiring, featured painting by the Wyeth family from America: N.C., Andrew, and Jamie. Here is more information.

*For the uninitiated: The light on the bigger part of the moon is reflected from the earth (which is illuminated directly by the sun).