Paris Street Photography

While in Paris, Max and I wanted to work on a creative project so Max took this poem by Charles Baudelaire and translated it from French. We then went around Paris and Northern France filming shots to accompany the piece. We are currently working with another friend to create an original score for the film. Below is Max’s literary translation and a photo of one of our filming locations, Baudelaire’s grave at Montparnasse.

ABYSS

Pascal had his abyss. The one that moved with him.

In its depths it swallows everything—

All actions and words. All desires. 

All dreams.

The wind brings fear with it.

My hair stands on end as it passes through me.

Above, below, all around me, this depth,

and the space, the silence, terrifying and… fascinating.

I peer further down, to the very bottom,

where God’s knowing fingers 

draw each and every form of an endless nightmare.

I fear sleep the same way we fear those big black pits of nothing

that lead God knows where, and even when we look away

the vertigo stalks us.

Haunts us.

Haunts me.

I envy the insensitivity of nothingness.

I see the dark infinity through every window,

and I long to be freed from numbers and forms.

Le Gouffre by Charles Baudelaire, 1857

Literary translation by Max White

Story & Photography by: Matthew Kirven

If you are interested in purchasing a print of any of the images featured in this blog, please contact me.