CASA NOSTRA - UNE PURE AIRE DE JAZZ

The Casa Nostra caffé, located in Paris - Rue de la Croix Nivert, was very famous for the owner sense of humour and the vibes he brought to the tables but also because there was acoustic live music every week-ends.
From Gypsy Jazz to french singers / songwriters going all the way to Funk and alternatives music you’d never know what to expect but the vibe has always been there…

When I first entered this small bar, a rainy friday evening in 2011, I had my camera with me. After a few minutes and a few drinks I asked the owner, Ollivier, if it would be possible to take a couple pics, he kindly agreed and I started shooting the musicians right away.
But I realised very quickly that the scene was not only where the musician’s played but everywhere on this bar!
A mix of foreigners speaking different languages, music lovers brought there by the groups and regular members all at the same time, were having fun together with this venue as their only common factor.

Since that day I was a regular visitor, especially on week-ends where this place was hot all thru the nights.
But I changed my camera’s point of view, now directed toward the people more and more.

Ollivier has been a strong support for me from the very beginning. He was actually very curious to see the pics I took, and wanted to see something made out of it. That gaves me this crazy idea of printing a book featuring my images, but I thought something was missing until I met this french journalist, Michel Izard.

He was standing at the bar one day, Ollivier and him were reviewing some of my pics and when I entered he simply said something nice about the images I took. He introduced himself as a storyteller and from this conversation the idea of a book of pictures and poetry was born.

This book, featuring only Black and White pictures accompanied by Haiku Poetry written especially for this project by Michel IZARD, was released in spring 2012.

Michel decided to write a very particular kind of poetry, the Japanese Haiku, as a challenge.
And I think he did great!

I submitted my pictures, we ran thru each ones and he picked his favorites in no particular order or themes. After a few weeks or so he got back to me and each Haiku was tied to an image, adding some extra character to it in a way I couldn’t see the image without the poetry associated anymore.

A few years later, Ollivier decided to move back to his homeland, Corsica.

Paris since then would never be the same for me.

I sincerely thank all the people involved in the making of this project :
Ollivier Louis
Michel Izard
Cérès Anankè
All the people at Sanza-World in Abidjan