See Paris through the eyes of Dennis Wile, one of the region's most celebrated photographers...

Dog in Car (Paris, 1985)
I took this photograph on the Rue Saint-Merri, next to the Pompidou Center, in the Beaubourg district of Paris. I had just left a William Klein exhibition at the nearby Zabriskie Gallery. Klein, another American photographer working in Paris, is known for his ability to capture the spontaneity of street life. After viewing his work, I felt that his energy was somehow with me when I came across this scene.

"During the last forty years, I have led parallel lives as a street photographer and a portraitist. Though I am known primarily for my portraits, I began my photographic work in the avenues and neighborhoods in and around Marseilles. From these beginnings in the south of France, and alongside my portrait work, I have continued to photograph the street in many places throughout the world.

The art of photography is my passion, and the means by which I create my vision of the world. Each art form possesses specific qualities from which its inherent charm derives. Photography's charm resides in its near perfect rendering of particular moments, creating the illusion of stopping time--in effect achieving the impossible. The spell that a photograph casts on us comes from the feeling that, by some magic, the limits of the possible have been exceeded. It is this spell that captivates me.