John Van de Graaff

By VandeGraaff

Finance Ministry from the Metro

This is not my best portrait of Paris's Finance Ministry, completed in 1989. Said by some to represent a "brutalist" style, it is not Paris's favorite building. One web site comments as follows: "Here, [Paul] Chemetov has created a sarcastic but perfect symbol for the Finance Ministry: its Orwellian shape looms like a monster guarding the entrance to the city, with two feet firmly planted in the rushing waters of the Seine.

I took the blip from the No. 6 Metro, at dusk (6:17 p.m.) on a cloudy day, with various internal reflections (including the face).

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