I've been to Paris a few times, and whenever I am there I obsessively take photos of bits and pieces of the city. The top image is Ritz Paris, the famed hotel where I stayed on one of my trips. I liked the shadows on the building.
The second, less-interesting photo is the entrance to the Rue du Passy stop on the Metro. The building behind it is where I lived when I worked there as a model. Every day I would walk down those steps, grinding my teeth as I summoned the guts to go through another day of work and still retain a shred of self-confidence. Entering that Metro station, walking down those steps, was like crossing a line of battle. I was thrilled to be there, working, but...it was a lot to deal with mentally.
The apartment itself was the best part--I wish I had some good photos of it. Rue du Passy is in the 16th arrondissement, which is a beautiful area. Originally I was supposed to live someplace else--that first place was an extra room living with an elderly woman, but when I showed up the first day she called the agency and said she didn't want me there because I didn't speak French, and also she thought she was going to die soon. So, my agent told me to just leave, and I moved in with agency owner's brother. He, too, was elderly, and he had a home-care nurse come every day to do something behind closed doors; I never found out what specifically was wrong. It didn't matter. He was nice, and we'd watch old movies together at night. I was the only model with the agency to have my own bedroom, so I lucked out.
This was my agent, Paula, a wonderful woman from Lebanon who would hug me every day and call me "mon petit Dan." The guy on the left was another model with the agency. Obviously it was dark so this is a terrible photo but I loved Paula and this is my only photo of her. That night the three of us went to dinner and saw the Australian movie "Love Serenade." Paula went to only English-language movies, because she said "French films are SHIT." I couldn't tell you anything about the jobs I did, but I remember that movie night like it was yesterday.
These are two of my friends--the guy on the left was from Ohio, and the guy on the right was from Wales. Our main source of entertainment was going from party to party, where of course we weren't technically invited, looking for free food because we were so poor. Usually all we found was free champagne, which we drank like it was keeping us alive. Although the Ohio guy actually worked a lot doing catalog jobs, and those pay really well, so I think he had money and was just going along for fun.
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