Post Presidential election in France ( More on page 2 )

Julien · May 8, 2007

As some might know France just had its presidential elections this WE and it turns out that Sarkozy ( right wing ) won. Just after this announcement ( made official around 8pm ) people opposed to him started gathering on the round-about of la Bastille, whereas those in favour found their way on the place de la Concorde for a big concert celebration.

It wasn't too long before things started to heat up in la Bastille and things got a little bit wild ( a fellow photographer got hit on the head by a cobblestone , and made the news in the process ). I wasn't there that night, but things happened yesterday night again and I wasn't going to miss that twice.

I obviously can't post all of them here, but if you're interested check all of them out here and you'll be able to follow the night chronologically.

Here are a few of these. They are quite small so should load quite easily :wink:

#1
It started out by blocking the traffic of the round-about simply by standing in the middle of it.

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#2
Then they built some sort of barricades to channel the traffic. Only one car at a time could pass. That is if the people let them.

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#3
Then out of nowhere this flare lights up and the crowd starts moving down that small road. We know that this many people on such a small street is bad news.

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#4
I was with 2/3 fellow photographers and we stayed behind only to see all the mess left behind. We actually didn't catch up with the crowd until midnight. It was a game of cat and mouse between the protesters and the cops that were all over the streets trying to channel them where they could stop them.

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#5
This scooter was left behind burning. It's amazing how hot it is even from 7-8 feet. This was the occasion to see the police officers in action putting out the fire. You could see they weren't kidding, they were backing each other up in case of an ambush I guess and had another officer with a flashball gun looking at the crowd from another angle. Impressive stuff !

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#6
We then ran with the police to try and catch up the protesters that were by now long gone.

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#7
Around midnight , after walking a fair amount we managed to find them again. They all came back to where it started on the place de la Bastille.

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#8
A bit after the police was given the call to arrest people in order to put an end to this. Things got rough here too.

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The 3 following shots are from the people in the police buses.

#9
read : "liberty"

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#10
read : "we are voters ! not vandals this is stupid "

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#11
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#12
I found the contrast between the young man's face and the situation very appealing.

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#13
Here the police had circled the last few protesters ( at least the ones that stayed on the steps of the opera ) and lead them to the buses. This girl didn't stop talking to the cops who remained perfectly still and silent.

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For some reason this photographer got arrested as well. I really wish I knew who to give this photo because I'm sure it has a certain potential ( it's quite crappy technically-wise but just the fact that they arrested an apparently innoncent photographer is a big event ! ).

#14
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#15
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Thanks for watching. I should have more since it doesn't seem that these events are going to stop soon.

Equis25 · May 8, 2007

Julien,

A nice series of images reflective of the mood of the crowd.

<It would not have been my personal choice to spend the evening though.> You're a tough guy! Place de la Bastille has been, since it was built a long long time ago, the premier location to protest.

Any excuse to protest will do for certain people. The biggest problem is that many a manifestation gets hi-jacked by the "rabble" that sets things on fire.

Dave Dickerson · May 8, 2007

Good stuff, Julien. In aggregate these do a great job of telling the story, but #'s 5, 7, and 11, 12, and 13 are quite interesting photos standing on their own. Please be careful as you continue to document the unrest.

beaucamera · May 8, 2007

Great set, Julien!

Virginia
aka beaucamera

GBRandy · May 8, 2007

Very nice set Julien.

#11 is a great work....very good

Seems they only arrest Canon photographers....lucky you!

RFCGRAPHICS · May 8, 2007

Sore Losers !

PS... nice set of images.

Gale · May 8, 2007

Wow
You did a great job of coverage and staying clear of arrest:>))
NIce work

SamIAM · May 8, 2007

Great images Julien. Merci.

Graeme · May 8, 2007

Totally in your face Julien.............

G

Chris101 · May 9, 2007

Good work Julien! And you did an excellent job of remaining objective, regardless of your personal politics. And for that I 'officially' thank you.

Oh, and ps. Randy beat me to it, but obviously they arrested the lady for shooting with a Canon.

Julien · May 9, 2007

vacontractor said:
Nice. Got any pictures of Ségolène Royal? :biggrin:

Lol. I would've if I went outside on the election day, sadly I was too lazy ... a pity I think in retrospective.

Equis25 said:
Julien,

A nice series of images reflective of the mood of the crowd.

<It would not have been my personal choice to spend the evening though.> You're a tough guy! Place de la Bastille has been, since it was built a long long time ago, the premier location to protest.

Any excuse to protest will do for certain people. The biggest problem is that many a manifestation gets hi-jacked by the "rabble" that sets things on fire.

I whole-heartedly agree about the hijacking part ! that's really sad.

I was kind of afraid at first that night , but then you get the hang if it and I have to admit that there is some sort of exhilaration to it. That's where you have to be careful and still realise that this is potentially dangerous, especially being on the side of the police : your likely to get hit by projectiles ( that actually happened to a friend, who made the news, that got hit in the forehead by a cobblestone. Thankfully he's alright !! )

Dave Dickerson said:
Good stuff, Julien. In aggregate these do a great job of telling the story, but #'s 5, 7, and 11, 12, and 13 are quite interesting photos standing on their own. Please be careful as you continue to document the unrest.

Thanks Dave, sure will :wink:

beaucamera said:
Great set, Julien!

Virginia
aka beaucamera

Thank you Virginia

GBRandy said:
Very nice set Julien.

#11 is a great work....very good

Seems they only arrest Canon photographers....lucky you!

:biggrin: That didn't even spring to mind !

I really wonder why she got caught. It wasn't serious though because she was there the next evening.

SRA said:
Thank you Julien. I am going to watch this page for your updates. Take care of yourself and don't get hurt or arrested. :smile:

BTW, I will be in Paris in about two weeks. Isn't the Bastille near the street with all the camera shops? What a sad event to occur in a beautiful area of the city.

Don't worry Scott I really don't want to get arrested or hurt either :biggrin:

You're correct about that street. It's called le Boulevard Beaumarchais and starts at this round about, but nothing happened there so the camera shops are safe :wink:

RFCNIKON said:
Sore Losers !

PS... nice set of images.

I really don't think so Robert. It's more complicated than that , but I don't want to get into politics :wink:

Gale said:
Wow
You did a great job of coverage and staying clear of arrest:>))
NIce work

Thanks Gale , I'll try that sure thing !

SamIAM said:
Great images Julien. Merci.

De rien Sam !

Julien · May 9, 2007

Graeme said:
Totally in your face Julien.............

G

Thanks Graeme. Being right in the middle of it ( with that little 50mm lens ) I really wanted people to feel part of it as well.

outt3n said:
wow i love #9, just so much in that picture! great job!

Thank you very much Kyle :wink:

Chris101 said:
Good work Julien! And you did an excellent job of remaining objective, regardless of your personal politics. And for that I 'officially' thank you.

Oh, and ps. Randy beat me to it, but obviously they arrested the lady for shooting with a Canon.

I'm glad those pictures seemed objective it's a good sign Chris.

Yeah Randy was fast indeed :Crunk:

Kiwi Geoff · May 9, 2007

Great work Julien, I echo the comments about camera choice as insurance against arrest !!

Dave Dickerson · May 9, 2007

I just took a look at all the shots on your Flickr page. Really good series. Looking at all of these has given me a stronger sense of what a scary scene it must have been.

SRA · May 9, 2007

In #22 I think the young man is contemplating what his parents might say after they bail him out of jail.

Candidcameraman · May 10, 2007

Astounding, I really love your photos, great pictures and report.

DABO · May 10, 2007

Great courage. Thanks for the series.

DAB