Emerging from the nightmare of Nazi occupation and the military humiliation of World War II, Paris in 1950 began its 2,000th birthday celebration. The hopes and fears of a new millenium were reflected in the faces of the people. Life was hard for all from clochards sleeping under bridges to inhabitants of underheated luxury apartments.

I had the good fortune to arrive in Paris at that time for a year of study at the Sorbonne. I was immediately impressed by how much the street life of the city reflected the momentous efforts of a fractured world culture to recover its energy. What I studied in the classroom in text and lecture was being played out in the streets, parks and theaters

My Rolleiflex camera became more important than textbooks as I seized the opportunity to observe this modern rebirth of a proud nation and to embody its spirit in images that could be preserved. And through photographic illustration this exciting story could be shared. In this fashion my initial year of study extended over most of that decade. Later I added a Leica for its variety of lenses and convenience in shooting color.

The only celebrity I have photographed was the handsome Saint Louis who was entrapped in a brass bust. My favorite subjects were ordinary people and their world. Inspired by the work of Henri Cartier Bresson and his ideal of "seizing the decisive moment," I wanted to capture those moments in the purity of their existential nowness, unfiltered through notions of right and wrong, good and evil.

Over the ensuing years I have exhibited prints of my images in galleries of France and the United States. I have utilized them in publications and posters. Now the world-wide web of the internet offers an exciting opportunity to share these memories on a heretofore unimaginable scale. But above all I want these images to speak for themselves.

Mary Alice Johnston
June 2004, Crestone Colorado