In 1989 I made my first visit to Paris, fell in love with the city, and began to work in earnest on bringing my vision of Paris to the black and white silver gelatin print. 

I have 10,000 images of Paris on film and another million firmly in my mind and my heart. Each image is a small slice of time, perhaps only one one-hundredth of a second, chosen to represent some timeless quality of the city and its people. Henri Cartier-Bresson talked about the “decisive moment” in taking a picture of something unique, I am after the “definitive moment” because Paris is a place where things keep happening in repeating patterns that give it power and make it a living place. It draws power and intelligence and art to itself and its structure, its patterns of activity, the way it looks, are a result of all that. My “slices” of Paris represent about 100 seconds in the life of a centuries old city that I would like to believe will go one repeating its patterns as long as Paris retains her vitality.

Jeff Schraeder