France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child [Hardcover]

Through intimate and compelling photographs taken by her husband Paul Child, a gifted photographer,A labor of love, about a love affair... It's extraordinary to see a collection of photographs in which a fiercely talented and accomplished woman is presented with humor, admiration, and love. Julia called Paul 'the man who is always there.' He took pictures at every turn, leaving a record of the streets of Paris and Marseille, of his wife, and of his own ghostly, beloved presence, reflecting the light that she cast.While it seems we've already seen photographs of every centimeter of Paris from every angle, it's a pleasure to look at the postwar city through Child's viewfinder. A trained draftsman, painter and lithographer, he had strong theories about composition and light, as well as a desire to distill some aspect of each place, whether it be fishermen on the Seine, geometrically framed by the overlapping arches of a bridge, or an old woman unwittingly anchoring an angular shadow in the South of France. As accomplished as the photographs are, and as engaging a character as Paul Child is revealed to be, the real draw here will undoubtedly be his intimate portraits of Julia Child before she was, well, Julia Child. What ultimately makes this enjoyable celebration of his work an important part of the Child archive is that it illuminates the third side of that fabled triangle, connecting us to his love of Julia  and France.[Paul Child] was a master of light, capturing the subtle details of shadows and highlights, creating photos rather than taking them& Julia makes many appearances in the book and is clearly his muse.To see [Julia Childs] bare legs splayed on a rooftop, eating and laughing with friends, felt like meeting an entirely different persona person you immediately want to get drunk and make a clafoutis with... But the book is so much more than black and white slides of a family vacation... Through Pauls photographs you see Julia before she was Julil£.