Media Credit: COURTESY BRUNO REQUILLART Bruno Requillart's "View from the roof terrace of La Samaritaine, October 23, 2000" gives a bird's-eye perspective of the Seine River in Paris. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: COURTESY BRUNO REQUILLART Silver Eye Center for Photography's current exhibit, "Paris on the Seine," features images that frame familiar landmarks from new perspectives, such as "Notre-Dame, seen from the Quai de Montebello, January 1, 2004" that frame familiar landmarks from new perspectives. [Click to enlarge]

Along the banks of the Seine River in Paris, a few joggers whiz past flocks of pigeons as they leap into flight. As the river flows lazily past the Louvre, Notre-Dame and the Musee d'Orsay, weeping willows sway quietly in the breeze. Further down the river, a secondhand bookstall defines the architecture as the rows of books stacked side by side mirror the buildings behind them.

These black-and-white photographs by Bruno Requillart are part of the "Paris on the Seine" exhibit featured at the Silver Eye Center for Photography. Requillart is a French photographer who aims to capture "the poetry of the instant … and to play with the possibilities reality furnishes us."

The result is breathtaking, as each of the 50 photographs allows the viewer to stroll vicariously through the streets of Paris. A new vision of Paris emerges through Requillart's camera and his use of the rare method of silver gelatin printing.

With each image, Requillart captures an instant in which tree branches reach upward to emulate the structure of the Eiffel Tower, or a lone bird perches on an electrical wire high above the Seine.

What is most remarkable about the photographs is the effect of spontaneity on well-known images. In his "Eiffel Tower, seen from the Avenue du President-Kennedy, November 11, 2005," the well-known symbol of Paris is shrouded by the foliage of a weeping willow. Such a famous monument is captured in a fresh new light as the identity of the Eiffel Tower is revealed in the space between the branches.

In "Ile Saint-Louis, Quai d'Orleans, seen from the Quai de la Tournel, December 16, 2003," the buildings echo the river as they seem to bend through the panoramic lens of Requillart's camera.

"Secondhand booksellers, Quai de la Megisserie, Ile de la Cite, November 14, 2002," allow books, stacked side by side and in varying rows and columns, to become duplicates of the row houses that emerge behind them along the banks of the Seine.

Requillart is known for his method of photography as well as his successful use of line, texture and composition. He juxtaposes trees and buildings, people and animals in this exhibit to present the familiar in a split second when the elements come together to create angles and planes that never existed before.

"Paris on the Seine" marks a particularly special occasion in that it displays Requillart's first work in 20 years. While living in Paris in 1980, he stopped photographing in favor of painting. But after years of trial and error he began his work in photography again, concentrating on places where he lives: Paris and Pavia in Portugal.

"Paris on the Seine" is the result of seven years of photographs along the major river in northwestern France where Requillart provides images of his beloved Paris in the spring. Similarly, the effect of this rich city blanketed under a winter snow is mesmerizing - the tree branches are barren and the architecture is thrust into the foreground.

To experience one of the most famous cities in the world through Requillart's lens, visit the Silver Eye Center for Photography in the South Side before May 26.

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