Shooting is both passion and art.

My favorite thing is to load Ilford 35mm into my sixty-year-old Soviet-made Zenit. The camera’s heft feels solid, real. The 20mm Vivitar lens captures the world in sharp relief. With ISO 100 film and a 3.8f stop, light is a fickle companion. Too little, and the exposure is wasted. But when it all comes together, the result is pure and honest.

In the dusky glow of a Mediterranean sunset, the ancient city of Marseille sprawled like a seasoned matron of the sea. She bore her years with the salty grace of a fisherman’s widow, weathered yet resilient. Founded by Greek sailors around 600 BC, Marseille’s origins were as rugged and untamed as the wild waters that lapped at her shores. These early mariners named her Massalia, a sanctuary carved from stone and salt.

Through the ages, Marseille grew, her heart beating with the rhythm of trade and adventure. She became a Roman stronghold, a bustling port of commerce and culture, where the scent of spices mingled with the brine of the sea. The city’s streets, narrow and winding, whispered tales of explorers and conquerors, of merchants and mariners who shaped her destiny.

In the Middle Ages, Marseille was a jewel in the crown of the Provençal counts, a beacon of resilience amidst the tumults of time. She withstood sieges and plagues, her spirit unbroken, her people bound by a fierce loyalty to their rugged home. The Revolution brought turmoil and transformation, yet Marseille stood defiant, her soul as indomitable as the mistral winds that swept across her.

By the 20th century, Marseille was a melting pot of cultures, her docks thrumming with the lifeblood of trade and immigration. The echoes of war and peace resonated through her streets, yet she remained ever steadfast, a city of grit and grace. Hemingway might have found solace here, among the fishermen and the poets, the dreamers and the drifters, all seeking a piece of the Marseille magic.

Marseille, in her essence, is a tale of endurance, of a city that embraces the ebb and flow of time with a sailor’s stoic acceptance, always looking to the horizon, always ready for the next adventure.