One of the features for the Paris issue of Time Out centred around the 'Goutte D'Or' area in the North of Paris. This working class area has a large African population and the tone of the piece was about discovering the lesser known parts of the city.
I had a sneaking suspicion that shooting this area might not be straightforward as many of the people here are living and working 'sans papiers', ie illegally, so may well be camera shy. This was proved correct as most of the shops on the picture list refused point blank to have any photographs taken on the premises. Of those that did agree I found that as soon as the camera came out the shop would mysteriously empty of people, even the person working there would suddenly remember they had something urgent to do out the back.
So to get across a sense of the place (without upsetting anyone) I concentrated on the various colours, patterns and textures of the area. The various fabric shops, music stores and greengrocers all provided this and these shots worked well as a back up plan.
Another shoot was a portrait of Jean-Claude Mbvoumin, a native Cameroonian who runs the charity 'Soc Solidaire' which rescues young African boys who have been brought to France by men posing as football agents.
The idea was to have a portrait of himself with a few members of his team kicking a ball in the background. Arriving at his offices I discovered that the other people attending were now unfortunately unavailable and also that he had no football at his offices threatening to make the whole shoot a bit redundant.
Not to worry, after a quick look round outside his offices we found an Alimentation Generale (a corner shop) which had a few of those plastic footballs you find at petrol stations, five minutes later and five Euros lighter I was shooting him playing keepy uppy in the middle of the street and also a few posed shots outside a cafe - job done.
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