Actually ~50% of my reason for writing this entry is that my grandparents wrote on my birthday card that they like my blogs.

See, now I've let so much time go by since my last blog that I've got too many things I haven't told you and this entry is intimidating. Since I last wrote, I finished with classes until September, I've played host and tour guide during visits of 4 of my best friends from America, I've worked full time at my internship for 2 weeks and a day, I turned 21, and I've had several breakthroughs in the form of personal realization. I'd love to write about all of these things coherently and articulately, or even chronologically, but you know me. If you were expecting anything besides stream-of-consciousness ramblings, you wouldn't be reading my blog. Be honest.

So, during the summer of 2004 I taught photography at a sleep-away camp in the mountains in North Georgia. The kids shot black and white film which we developed and printed in the darkroom. Having piles of free film, chemicals and paper at my disposal, I shot black and white film all summer also, pretty scenic stuff around camp, it really was beautiful, and then the last week when I decided I wanted some color pictures of the friends I'd made so I put some color film in my camera. Suddenly I saw differently, I actually saw all of the colors in everything and camp was instantly more beautiful and magical than before. The camp hadn't actually gotten more beautiful, it's just that I started to see what was there already. That drastic and beautiful change in perception is the closest I can get to describing to you what it felt like to finish my finals, meaning that I am done with class until September.

Around this time, incidentally, the first sunshine started and the flowers began to bloom. Here I'll share personal realization #1: My mood is very dependent on the weather.

Lindsey Bailet, one of my best friends from home, came to Paris and stayed with me during my spring break. It was beyond refreshing to be around someone I've known so well for so long, frollick with her in the sunshine, to hear her get excited about how beautiful everything is and how and, even though I was starting to get sick of it. We also went to Blois (which we insisted on pronouncing 'BLAHHH', but only behind its back, never to its face) a village in the Loire valley with a sweet castle that features an amazing spiral staircase.

The day before Lindsey left, Maddy and Alex, two of my best friends from Boston came here for their spring break. I saw more sunshine during this week than I had seen in the past two months combined. Basically, I giggled ceaselessly, and it was one of the best weeks of my life.

I taught them all about Métro faces, and by the end of their trip they'd perfected theirs:
This is me giggling. Seriously I did this for about a week straight:

Also you don't know anything about my internship which is amazing! I work at Parisienne de la Photographie, a photo agency near Place de la Bastille. 9-5, M-F with a lunch break. My commute is about a 45-minute bike ride along the Seine, passing by most of the famous and beautiful sights of Paris, and it's sweet light hour on the way there and on the way back. LOOK.
LOOK:


I work in the conservation department, mostly reconditioning the photos of Henri Martinie. Click on his name to see some examples from the agency's website. The collection is all portraits, mostly of French writers, politicians, and artists. They're shot really close up, a little from above, and with no depth-of-field (yes, all 9,000 of them are the same exact style). They're large-format negatives, mostly nitrate but some glass, that have been stored in these pockets that are actually starting to damage them, so it's my job to copy the information from the old, damaging pocket to a new, neutralized pocket that I folded earlier in the day, and move the negative to its new home. I also get to examine the negative for alterations, rate it according to how damaged it is, and note specific alterations, in French of course, I should learn the English words for everything I'm doing if I ever want it to be useful after I leave. To do this I get to wear a mask and gloves and a lab coat! It's serious. I'm also only supposed to do reconditioning for 2 hours a day. Nobody really knows what kind of damage the nitrate can do to my lungs or hands. I take this to mean that it's basically harmless, but the French take it to mean that wearing the mask is really serious. Also: this isn't just some paper surgeon's mask. This thing has a filtering cartridge of something and two straps and rubber and basically makes it impossible to breathe or talk. My coworkers like to make fun of it while I'm wearing it, and we laugh together. Awesome. This is Sophie, in front of the Martinie photos we're reconditioning. These are their old boxes. They're being damaged in these, and we're stopping that damage. She works with me on the Martinie collection, but she's only there two days a week. She's really spunky, and she really enjoys wearing the lab coat.
Parisienne de la Photographie has been commissioned by the Maire de Paris (city hall, basically) to digitize these photos and put them on the internet. It's affiliated closely with and shares space with Agence Roger-Viollet.

I also do inventory of another collection, too, photos of Boris Lipnitzki. His images are a little more interesting, medium-format negatives, lots of portraits of incredibly ugly people but at least they don't all have the exact same composition. I don't have to wear a mask to do these, but I also don't get to note their quality, I just get to count the number of negatives and positives in each pocket.

I really do love my job, as annoying and tedious as it is. I know it's not a good match for me because I'm absentminded and I don't pay attention to detail and sometimes I think the repetitiveness might kill me, but when I look at all of the old pictures around me I get the same sense of excitement that I get at thrift stores or garage sales, this kind of utilitarian feeling that these photos can be more useful and bring more joy to the world if they're taken care of, in this world if they're on the internet, and somebody's got to do it, so why not me? I'm glad they're being saved and conserved and appreciated. The Martinie stuff is interesting, even though it's nothing like any photo I would ever take. I'm learning a lot about conservation, too. My coworkers are really friendly and fun and we always eat lunch together. I want to be best friends with all of them. The ceilings are high and it's always a little bit too cold and never stuffy and there's great window light.

I have so much to say but my fingers hurt from typing. I guess everything else (my 21st birthday, Phoebe's visit, my thoughts for/lack of summer plans, additional personal realizations, etc.) will have to be a secret!