Hopefully you know by now that HPRG loves photography.

We designed the ground floor of La Belle Juliette especially so that it could used as an exhibition space, and the stairwell is also equipped.Throughout the year, we show work by young photographers whose work has caught our eye. Patrick Tourneboeuf (carte blanche PHPA 2010) and Elene Usdin (carte blanche PHPA 2011) were shown recently, and our new exhibition is by Thibault de Puyfontaine, a photographer who loves colour.

It’s being held to complement his other exhibition at the bookshop and gallery “Le 29” near the Canal Saint-Martin.Here’s a snippet from the press release, written by Olivier Bourgouin of the Révélateur Agency:

In the heart of the colourful night, with drifting fragrances of the Orient, sometimes subtle, sometimes strong, that Thibault de Puyfontaine draws us into. The first shots for his “Late Colors” project took him to Egypt, from Cairo to Alexandria, then on to Mozambique. The results are stunning visuals, part dream and part reality.

No colours have been modified for the series, no scene was constructed, not post-production was made to the photos. The square format photos were taken on film, the rectangular ones were shot digitally.Don’t miss this superb exhibition that fits in perfectly with the colourful surroundings of La Belle Juliette.

Thibault also recently took part in our photo project PHPA. Click here to see his fine contribution.The next exhibitions coming to La Belle Juliette

15th March 2012: Alain Cornu
15th June: Graziella Antonioni, winner of the grand PHPA 2011 prize

Thibault de Puyfontaine – Late Colors

Continues until 15th March 2012 at La Belle Juliette (here).

Free, every day from 11am – 8pm

And until 29th January 2012 at the Librairie Galerie Le 29 (here)

Free, weekdays 10am – 8pm (closed Mondays). Weekends midday – 7pm

An exhibition and a book for this great project that brings together fans of Marilyn Monroe with a dress she actually wore…It’s at the Bon Marché, minutes from La Belle Juliette that you can see these great shots (for free!).

Why, fifty years after her death, does Marilyn Monroe still fascinate as she does? What sort of relationship binds her fans to her memory and her image?

Yury asked around forty individuals – famous or otherwise – from Europe and the USA to have their photo taken with an authentic summer dress that belonged to the Hollywood star.A book of the project is also available here with a preface from another icon, Catherine Deneuve (120 pages, 60 photos, 39.95€)

The exhibition Marilyn and I by Yury Toroptsov is at the Bon Marché (here) from 29th October 2011 – 7th January 2012

Open every day except Sundays from 10am – 8pm (9pm Thursdays and Fridays).

Admission: free!

You may not know as much about Romy Schneider as the French do – she will have eternal star status here – so this exhibition is your chance to find about her star-studded life and tragic end…

photo by quicheisinsane used under cc licence

You may not know that Paris has a museum covering the 1930s. The truth is, it doesn’t really, but Boulogne-Billancourt (tacked onto the west side of the city) does, and the métro can get you there as simply as anywhere else.

Perhaps that will encourage you to visit the Romy Schneider exhibition that they are holding in partnership with the Berlin Cinematheque, and with the blessing of Schneider’s daughter, Sarah Biasini.

Romy Schneider became France’s favourite German actress after starring in a series of films about an Austrian princess called Sissi (obligatory Xmas favourites on TV here), but she soon moved out of schmaltz territory to become a respected actress, something doubtless helped by her extraordinary beauty and considerable talent. Later, she married French film icon Alain Delon, thus sealing her icon status forever, and they had a son David together.

Alas, the latter part of her life took a turn for the tragic; she separated from Delon, and David died impaled on the railings of their house (he was trying to get back in at night). The grief drove her to drink, and she was found dead a few months later in her apartment, apparently from a mix of painkillers and alcohol.

Any serious francophile will make the pilgrimage to this exhibition to see the rare documents and unpublished photos on show, as well as many personal items that belonged to the actress.

The Romy Schneider exhibition is at the Espace Landowski / Musée des années 30 (1930s museum) in Boulogne-Billancourt (here, five minutes from the métro station) from 4th November 2011 – 22nd February 2012

Open every day of the week from 10am – 7pm

Admission: 11€ / 8€

Combined ticket with entrance to the 1930s museum (we haven’t been, but looks interesting): 13€

Official site (in French only): www.annees30.com

photo by quicheisinsane used under cc licence

108 photos taken by photographers from the Magnum Agency, in collaboration with Reporters Without Borders.The six photographers, Raghu Raï, Olivia Arthur, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Martine Franck, Patrick Zachmann and Alex Webb have each chosen a different theme, such as women’s access to education, microcredits, or women’s role in film or local politics.

However, they all have in common the desire to show how women contribute to change in a country where everything seems to progress very slowly, a place where fighting for equal rights is a continual, tireless struggle.Not just an exhibition (which has already been shown in Bombay, Delhi, Kochi, Chennai, Calcutta, Milan, London and Brussels), Women changing India is also a book of photos published by Reporters Without Borders, that you can buy on newsstands or on their site.

The exhibition was conceived by the bank BNP Paribas to mark the 150th anniversary of their presence in India.

The exhibition Women changing India at the Petit Palais (here) from 21st October 2011 – 8th January 2012

Open Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm (last ticket 5pm). Closed Mondays and public holidays. Late night opening Thursdays for the temporary exhibitions only

Admission: free!

Official project site: www.forachangingworld.com/women-changing-india

Official Petit Palais site: www.petitpalais.paris.fr

French-speakers can peruse the press release below. Click the first button bottom left to go into fullscreen mode, or simply click here.

A look at the principle Spanish artists of the end of the 19th / beginning of the 20th century, with Picasso in the title to motivate people to come!

photo: JasonW

Do you think that visitors to this exhibition will really be coming to see Zuloaga? Hmmm… In any case, Picasso is not the only painter present in the exhibition; you’ll also see a bit of Dali, Sorolla, Miró and several less well known names.

The different styles give an idea of the diversity in Spanish art at the end of the 19th century and its natural evolution towards symbolism and post-impressionism.

And strangely enough, all the painters in the exhibition (apart from two) studied their art in Paris back in the day!

© MNAC, Barcelona / © ADAGP, Paris 2011

Don’t forget of course that the Orangerie also houses some (very big) paintings from a (very famous) French painter. Not to be missed…

photo: JasonW

The exhibition Spain between two centuries, from Zuloaga to Picasso (1890-1920) is at the Orangerie (here) until 9th January 2012

Open every day except Tuesdays and 25th December from 9am – 6pm (rooms start closing at 5.45pm)

Admission with the museum ticket: 7.5€ /5€

Official site: www.musee-orangerie.fr

Fancy travelling through timme two hundred years and seeing what Paris was like back then? This new exhibition gives you a glimpse of Parisians’ daily life, work and living conditions, with special background noises to plunge oyu into the thick of things…

© RMN (Musée d’Orsay) / Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Hervé Lewandowski

Back then, Paris was a place of urban segregation where people often lived in precarious conditions. Some might say that things haven’t changed that much for some… The exhibition will show you the misery but also the joy that filled the city’s sinuous streets at the time, and you’ll discover how people lived, what their apartments were like, what they ate, how they dressed, how they spent their free time…A lot of documents are taken from the museum’s own extensive collections, with a mix of drawings – often humourous or exaggerated – and photos – brutally realistic. A section is also dedicated to showing how the people organised themselves to revolt against the governing class that was partly dedicated to keeping them in their place.Various workshops are organised around the exhibition (calligraphy, the songs of the times…) and a French catalogue is available here on amazon.fr (392 pages, 300 colour illustrations, 37€).

The exhibition The people of Paris in the 19th Century, from the dances to the barricades is at the Musée Carnavalet (here) until 26th February 2012

Open Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm. Closed Mondays and public holidays

Admission: 7€ / 5€ / 3,50€

Official site: www.carnavalet.paris.fr

Facebook page in French: here

© Pierre Antoine

An exhibition about a painter at la Cité de la Musique, the centre for all things musical? Couldn’t be more suited…German painter Paul Klee is most definitely the most well known for his paintings, but we often forget that he was also a violinist of the highest level, with a strong link between his music and his paintings.

This large exhibition takes a chronological look at how his two passions interacted over the years, elevating Klee to be status of one the early 20th century’s greatest artists.Apart from over 100 paintings on show, the exhibition also has a kids workshop, debates, concerts, an intinerant concert winding its way through the exhibition on Sunday 11th December and a catalogue from publishers Actes Sud (208 pages, 42.75€ on amazon.fr here).The Paul Klee Polyphonies exhibition is at the Cité de la Musique (here) from 18th October 2011 – 15th January 2012

Open Tuesday – Saturday from midday – 6pm and Sundays from 10am – 6pm. Alos opening on the evenings with concerts (certain nights between 19th and 29th October) until 8pm. Closed Xmas day and 1st January

Admission: 8€ / 5€

Official site: www.cite-musique.fr

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/citedelamusiqueparis

Twitter: www.twitter.com/citedelamusique

Those of you with good French can get a lot more info from the official press release below. Click the first button bottom right to go into fullscreen mode. Or simply click here.

Split into two parts, historical and contemporary, this exhibition of amazing furniture is taking place in the stunning apartments of the château…

photo: Jean-Marc Manaï

It odd to think that at the end of the 18th century, the château de Versailles had been largely emptied of its furniture, thanks to the French Revolution, and it was only a century later that it was decided to get everything back!

The first part of this new exhibition shows this furniture, as well as many pieces that were never catalogued, and simply found by accident in various ministries and embassies, as well as the archives of the Mobilier national… all presented in the apartments of Françoise d’Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon.

photo: all rights reserved

The second part of the exhibition, presented in the apartments of the dauphin and the dauphine, shows contemporary furniture starting from the mid 1960s: desks, carpets and other object essentially created to furnish official house of government members.

In this section, designer Jacques Garcia has placed the ‘masculine’ furniture in the dauphin apartments and the ‘féminine’ furniture in the dauphine‘s. Genius!

photo: Isabelle Bideau

There are also kids’ workshops available, exploring the secrets of marquetry, marble, gilding… and a 280-page catalogue will also be published entitled (take a deep breath) Meubles du pouvoir, du Garde-meuble de la Couronne au Mobilier national. 45€ from Amazon here.

The exhibition Versailles and the Mobilier National:
four centuries of design is at the Château de Versailles (here) from 20th September – 11th December 2011.