Paris, Thursday Morning: Photographs by Paul Baskett

Paul Baskett does not presume to know Paris. He wasn't born there, nor is he an American expatriate who smokes in the Rive Gauche cafes. He doesn't even speak the language. However, his luminous, magical photos, exhibited at the Newton Free Library, do manage to capture an encounter with Paris that is beyond picturesque.

This is not a large exhibition. The photos do not add up to more than twenty, and they fit in the hallway as one enters the library. The beautiful, haunting colors of these images shock the eye. One does not expect to see such magnificent prints hanging in a suburban library filled with kids reading Curious George.

These photos include images of all the famous, celebrated sights of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, the Luxembourg Gardens, the Tuileries, cavernous depths of the numerous cathedrals, and typically French cafes. Not one of them is cliched. Just as the subject of each photo has a feel of early morning freshness, Baskett's approach to his work as a whole is drenched in originality.

Baskett does not compare himself to Atget or Brassai; their tradition of exploring and exposing the very skin and bones of Paris inside is not his own. Instead, "These photographs concern small moments and transient feelings, ephemera that may never have existed outside [a] single morning's ramble."

Baskett's strengths lie in his innovative angles and his combination of dramatic color and black and white. His colors often seem unreal due to burning techniques. Baskett does not accept the palette nature lends him; his own lens is more selective. This manipulation is most evident in his picture of a bright red, luminous French cafe, surrounded by a bright whiteness.

The subjectivity of his subject matter and his technique is a wonder to see--take the long ride to the Newton Highlands T station on the green line (D towards Riverside) and the fifteen minute walk to the library. Bring your camera.