Sundays by the River (Motta Photography Series)

Rating:
Summary: Timeless idylls
Review: On Sundays, Paris comes to a halt and Parisians take time to celebrate, well, that they're Parisians. In the spring and summer, especially, outdoor leisure predominates, and the romantic illusions that we Americans treasure of the City of Lights come closest to being reality.

At least, that's how this book's Introduction by Noël Simsolo paints it. And I'm inclined to believe him. Certainly, Willy Ronis' very impressive photography seems to support the argument. Or, more precisely, the argument seems to support Ronis' images, since it's the images that this book is about. Ronis is an important and skilled photographer, and the Smithsonian and Motta Editore of Milan have done a fine job in selecting four dozen of his images for this book. They're a great portrayal of Paris at rest. And because the images are monochromatic, the fact that they span four decades (1947 to 1993) can easily be forgotten. Classic Paris always seems to be in black and white anyway, and Ronis' timeless, seductive work draws us in easily.