[ book tip by Hannah Geismar ] Retour à Paris might look like just another pretty photo book about Paris, but if you look closer you'll discover that it's an amazing little book about time. The concept behind it is simple: the photographer Daniel Quesnay selected a bunch of old postcards showing various Paris exteriors, and went back with a camera to photograph the exact same places from the exact same angle in 2005.

Anyone who has ever lived in, spent time in or simply liked Paris, will love exploring the matching photos, searching for differences and similarities. There are an endless amount of curious little details to wonder about and many, many questions to ask. The evidence of the passage of time between an old photo and its contemporary twin is touching and as Michel Frizot puts it in the introduction, this concept truly requires a spectator: 'Without eyes and a brain scanning a page offering parallel views, the disconnected pieces can not be connected'.

But Retour à Paris doesn't just show the past and the present, it also forces the reader to think ahead, and this is what truly makes it a book for the future. The 2005 photos are full of objects and phenomena that we take for granted to such an extent that we hardly notice them: green recycling bins, ads and posters, plastic bags and backpacks, fast food restaurants - even Japanese tourists - and one can only wonder what people in 2105 will make of these photos if someone decides to do a third edition of Retour à Paris a 100 years from now. Will Laetitia Casta, Rolling Stone Magazine and Kentucky Fried Chicken seem as exotic to them as the people, horse wagons and shop fronts of 1905 seem to us?

[ book info ] Quesnay, Daniel: RETOUR A PARIS. Editions Parigramme, Paris, 2005 .