Spotlight #5 Peter Erickson

“Peter wanted to capture what he saw on his travels. Drawing and painting felt too slow, but in 1976 he discovered that the camera was perfect. With just a couple of lenses and a few rolls of film in his pocket, he could create memories to last a lifetime—each picture telling its own story.” www.instagram.com/colnagoeps/

At Bastille in 1992, the streets filled with voices against racism. I went there with my camera, not only to follow the march but to look outward, to the edges, where life carried on. Among the crowd I found the quiet faces of bystanders—those who paused, watched, or simply passed through. These photographs hold that tension between history and the everyday, where a city’s ordinary rhythm brushed against the urgency of protest.

In 1992, Bloomsday at the Collège des Irlandais in Paris brought together lovers of James Joyce’s Ulysses for a day of readings, music, and celebration. The historic building on the Rue des Irlandais, once a home for Irish students in exile, became a lively stage for actors, scholars, and expatriates to honour Leopold Bloom’s odyssey through Dublin. In the intimate courtyard and vaulted rooms, excerpts were read in both English and French, traditional Irish tunes filled the air, and conversations flowed late into the evening—keeping alive a Parisian tradition of celebrating Joyce where history, literature, and the Irish diaspora meet.