Portfolio Review: Marc Richardson Shares His Street Photography From Paris and Beyond

The photographer captures city dwellers in their natural habitat.

February 21, 2014

Image via Complex Original

21-year-old Marc Richardson grew up in the camera phone age, and his street photography is evidence of this upbringing. Training his lens on passersby in various cities around the world, Richardson captures loving couples, cool fashionistas, and urban landscapes.

Richardson was born in Montreal but currently lives in Paris, which he describes as the perfect city for photography. "Paris is a great place to shoot," he wrote in an email. "There’s the fashion aspect (which is really what I’m into), but there’s also a lot of stuff going on around you. There’s architecture and scenery and romance everywhere. That probably sounds corny as hell, but it’s true. I think, generally, the aesthetic of the city is terrific."

The young photographer came into his practice through the Internet; inspired by fashion photography he saw on Tumblr, Richardson picked up a camera himself. The artist names a fellow Montreal born photographer, Justin Saunders a.k.a. JJJ ound, as one of his influences.

Check out the Montreal artist's work in our Portfolio Review: Marc Richardson Shares His Street Photography From Paris and Beyond.

Under Construction

"This was taken at the Louvre. In a museum that is so incredibly full of art, it's kind of neat to see an empty space that still catches the eye."

Mist

"This is one of a series of pictures that I took with my iPhone rather than with a proper camera. I have to admit, though, I was surprised with how cool this turned out."

Pray

"This is what I used to stare at every morning in Montreal while waiting for the bus. I found the window distribution pretty peculiar and random."

Lamour est mort

"'Love is dead.' I snapped this in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, after originally walking by twice before stopping to compose and snap. Though-provoking graffiti is the coolest graffiti."

B

"'Oh hey, didn't see you there.' She looked up right as I was about to shoot, and I think the eye contact is what makes it such a cool picture. At first I wasn't a fan of it because she's slightly out of focus, but it's gradually grown on me."

Colette

"Yo, fashion is straight up ridiculous sometimes, and that's what makes it so much fun."

Crutch

"The Jardin du Luxembourg is, quite possibly, my favorite place in Paris. It's a great place to photograph people in a relatively intimate setting. The matching white jackets are why I originally stopped to shoot. It was only after that I realized he had a crutch on one arm and his wife on his other."

f

"Again, fashion is straight up ridiculous sometimes. This was the first time I was shooting street style in Paris, and I was pretty nervous. Somehow I ended up with this shot of Anna Dello Russo channeling her inner Cam'ron in her pink fur helmet."

Gait

"This was shot in the Jardin du Luxembourg as well. I've actually seen this couple twice in Paris, which is a little bit freaky. My favorite part about this image is the fact that their gaits are almost perfectly synchronized."

Lights

"This is another picture I took with my iPhone. I think that we have a hard time defining what photography and art are in an era where everyone has a camera at their fingertips and a platform to share their artistic vision. It's actually pretty fucking cool. "

Steps

"Paris is a dense city, and people will find a place to sit just about anywhere. I love this picture because it's something so simple (four people sitting on some steps), and they probably don't realize what they look like from afar."

Reflection

"Textures/surfaces/light is cool, I guess."

SS

"I'm a sneakerhead at heart, and the Stan Smith silo is so simple yet so classic. I'm also one to believe that a good outfit starts from the bottom (there's a Drake joke in there somewhere)."