PARIS / HAMBURG / PARIS Three Books 1950s~1960

PARIS / HAMBURG / PARIS Three Books 1950s~1960

Albert Muller published at least two books in their Ein Bummel durch die Nachtlokade city series: Paris and Hamburg; specifically Paris Oh! La! La! (1958 photos by Daniel Frasnay) and St.Pauli und die Reeperbahn (1960). Easily overlooked pocketbook size books, however both include beautiful photographs printed in very fine, dark toned gravure. The books capture the "nightlife" of both cities: Pigalle, Place Blanche and St.Germain des Pres and the notorious Reeperbahn district in Hamburg known for its adult sex shops, nightclubs, strip joints, tattoo parlors and the "closed" street for  prostitution, Herbertstrasse.  More about the Reeperbahn (literally "rope walk") click here.

The third book The Women of Paris shown below in a hardcover edition published by the Bodley Head in London, 1954, has a few things in common with the two Albert Muller books. It is obviously about Paris, it is beautifully printed in gravure (photographs by Nico Jesse) and it was eventually published in Holland (same title by A.W. Bruna & Zoon, 1958) as a pocketbook, similar in quality to the two books above. 

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eBay store link at top of the page

vasta@earthlink.net

@vasta_archives

PARIS La Galcante Vintage Magazines & Newspapers

In the never ending stories posted on the web from around the world of bookstores closing there remains in Paris a refuge, a "non-book store", filled with magazines, newspapers, photographs and ephemera, La Galcante. The shop is located on the right bank between what used to be the Samaritaine department store and Les Halles on the rue de l'Arbre Sec.

click any image to enlarge

 

Sidebar note: the story in the press June 15th of the fermeture definitive of the much loved La Hune book store located on the square St.German. After rescue a number of years ago, from their iconic corner spot on the blvd St.Germain, opposite Cafe de Flore, the store was overcome by unsustainable financial pressure. 

Will the space revert back to a Christian Dior boutique?, which itself replaced another venerable bookstore on that corner, Le Divan, the self proclaimed "... bookshop for people who read". 

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I first walked into La Galcante thirty years ago when it was across the street, housed in a smallish storefront with most of its inventory hidden below ground in chalky, dirty, odious caves. It was there a couple of years later, after having discovered VU magazine (Life magazine's inspiration) at the Paris paper show, that I was lead deep into the recesses of one of the caves and deposited at a huge pile "...here is our inventory of VU, take what you want, keep them in order and shut out the lights along the route on your way out." I bought many VU magazines that day, including incredible special issues, a feat which I could never repeat.

   

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 What appears to be stepping back in time, photos of the shop 2015 ...

 Large main room with skylights

Not books but bound volumes of periodicals!

vasta@earthlink.net

PARIS May ~ June 2015

I'm back in NYC, corporeally and, finally cerebrally, after an extensive European trip and a couple of weeks of catching up on sleep and everything else that goes unattended while traveling. It was a great trip starting in Paris, then to Verona and Berlin and back to Paris. See the next few posts for more of my trip and the shows I attended.

Here are pix which randomly sum up being in Paris off and on during five weeks. Above is the signature photo used for the Germaine Krull exhibition at the Jeu de Paume. She was one of the important photographers of the 1920s and '30s known for her nudes, modernist imagery and photo-journalism. Go see the show it's very well curated and a pleasure to see the full extent of her life and career.

click any image to enlarge

The start or end to many of my days, at the terrace cafe of La Rotonde

 

A metro station (Arts et Metiers) I had not previously seen with its reflective, 

faux copper covered surfaces and machine age, nautical, engine room theme...incredible!!

Details from advertisements, which are everywhere in the metro system. These two campaigns were about 100 feet from each other: the pink pussy for a jewelry company and Jesus used to promote a show at the Louvre.

Terrace pano of La Rotonde corner of blvds. Raspail and Montparnasse.

Transport me there NOW!!

Vintage mannequins at the Marche aux Puces and below faces (of equality!) 

in the window of a mannequin shop.

      Pano of the Place de la Concorde from the steps leading to the Jeu de Paume

One of the last of the Parisian "passages", le Choiseul, charming and

somewhat neglected, near the opera

Late night in a 20e arrondisement brasserie on the rue Bagnolet and below, early morning in the back room of Cafe La Palette in St. Germain.

Red light/green light: night view of a book store window, A Balzac A Rodin

in Montparnasse and the niteclub, Balajo in the Bastille

 "Le Belier" the mascot of L'Hotel Hotel

vasta@earthlink.net

PARIS HAMBURG PARIS Three Books 1950s~1960

Albert Muller published at least two books in their Ein Bummel durch die Nachtlokade city series: Paris and Hamburg; specifically Paris Oh! La! La! (1958 photos by Daniel Frasnay) and St.Pauli und die Reeperbahn (1960). Easily overlooked pocketbook size books, however both include beautiful photographs printed in very fine, dark toned gravure. The books capture the "nightlife" of both cities: Pigalle, Place Blanche and St.Germain des Pres and the notorious Reeperbahn district in Hamburg known for its adult sex shops, nightclubs, strip joints, tattoo parlors and the "closed" street of prostitution, Herbertstrasse.  More about the Reeperbahn (literally "rope walk") click here.

The third book Women of Paris shown below in a hardcover edition published by the Bodley Head in London, 1954 has a few things in common with the two Albert Muller books. It is obviously about Paris, it is beautifully printed in gravure (photographs by Nico Jesse) and it was eventually published in Holland (same title by A.W. Bruna & Zoon, 1958) as a pocketbook, similar in quality to the two books above. Click here to see the Bodley Head version of the book in my eBay store. 

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