Palais Garnier

This was my most inventive portrait of Paris today. With its framing of a lavish golden statue out of focus behind a roadsign and with the roadsign masked by tags, it layers three competing traits in a city's identity: prestige, function, and expression. Haussmann himself is named on the sign, yet the name is incomplete in the photo. The French flag is also incomplete, and the flag of the EU is barely identifiable.

I took this on a break from work; today was my first day working from my office – for now, we're each allowed to do so one day per week. It was thus also the first day I met my colleagues. The office isn't far from the Palais Garnier. I had a few shots of busy streets, some emptier ones with Sacre Coeur visible in the distance, but nothing like this.

I'm now onto a third day of shots looking up at buildings.