Boy playing in his grandfathers WWII tunic, Artemare, France, 2010 from The French by Nick Turpin

Second only to sunsets, The Eiffel Tower comes in near the top of the list of Cliché Things to Photograph. Paris in general has such a specific photographic image to it, that it seems to set up a rift in those capturing the city: you are either for or against these predefined romantic notions.

"These are not travel pictures," writes contender Nick Turpin, who describes his photographic relationship with the country as "love/hate,"

...it's not the geographic but the social and cultural landscape that interests me. France is straddling tradition and modernity whilst under siege from the Anglo Amercian world, the Croque Monsieur is slowly being replaced by the Big Mac.

Nick's series The French exists between the old and the new Paris and documents the shift between them.

Country and Western Fair, Contrevoz, France, 2010 from The French by Nick Turpin

Nick also intends to use the images to make a stand against French privacy laws. As it turns out, the country's laws regarding street photography are extremely conservative:

In 1995, the right to privacy was declared a constitutional right by the French Constitutional Court.

Under article 9 of the Civil Code, the right to privacy includes not only the disclosure of a person's private life but also the unauthorized taking of photographs and their publication.

That means that, legally speaking, to take a photograph of a stranger in a public place (and then publish it) is unconstitutional. Nick hopes to publish The French as a book and make it available everywhere except France, to highlight this photographic prohibition.

You can view more of Nick's work, including the whole series The French, at his website.

Untitled from The French by Nick Turpin