Thursday 28th Movember: Langres

I get rather over-excited when I find more than one photograph of the same person taken in the same studio at the same time. Together they can suddenly give you a sense of movement, which is something you obviously don't get from a single portrait.

In these two photographs, taken by Georges Pargon in his studio in Langres, north-eastern France, we see a fantastic pile of fake rocks moving from background to foreground; we see the same pair of gloves dangled twice from the same hand; and the same unlit cigarette posed twice between the same two fingers. The soldier's hat and dagger only feature once, as do his rather filthy shoes. And because of those shoes, I think his mother would have preferred the close-up...

Georges Pargon obviously had style - the back of his cartes are grandly elaborate. The twinned-arched gate tower he features still stands and looks much the same (I found a wonderful panorama photograph of Place Bel-Air on the web) but in front of it is now a massive car-park from where I presume you walk through those arches into the historic town centre.

Two cartes de visite, Georges Pargon, Langres, France.