These two young people and their dogs were camped out on the pavement of the busiest street of central Paris opposite the Town Hall.
They were lying on the footpath around dusk time completely oblivious of the throng of people going past them.
They were surrounded by all their paraphernalia – backpacks, sleeping bags and so forth - and two of their three dogs were frolicking around.
Despite the fact that there was very little ambient light, I immediately took out my camera, a Nikon D700, which is fabulous in low light situations, and set it at ISO 6400, which is a very high setting.
After receiving a nod of approval from the couple, I proceeded to take a number of photos of them and their dogs from different angles using available light at f8 and 1/60th second.
What was unusual was that they were not down and out people. They were just young trendies flaunting their sense of freedom. I took quite a few photographs of them, circling around them, and all the while the public were just streaming by.
They were lying head-to-foot and engaged in a very intimate discussion with each other and kissing from time to time. It was as though the rest of the world just didn’t exist.
When I later got back to where I was living and downloaded the images, I was very pleased with how little noise and pixilation there was, despite the low light and high ISO.
I was struck by the synchronicity between the couple and the two dogs in the photo. I soon realised that the place where I had taken the shots was exactly the same as one of the world’s most famous photographs taken by Robert Doisneau in 1950 called “Kiss by the Hotel de Ville”.
In Doisneau’s photograph, a young couple are locked in a passionate embrace in the same location opposite the Town Hall (Hotel de Ville) of Paris, whilst other Parisians walk disdainfully past them.
I am very pleased with my image because it captures the synchronicity between the couple and their dogs; it captures something essential about this couple’s intimate interchange and their oblivion at everything around them; and it conveys the transformation of romance from the 1950s to today.
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