The Paris Color Project

Have you ever walked down a street only to have your eye unexpectedly caught by a bright blue car parked by the sidewalk? Or smiled at the colorful shutters of an old apartment building? Nichole Robertson has been beautifully documenting these bursts colors and details of Paris for the last two and a half years and it's become such a pretty collection. Ordinary objects - chairs, street lamps, signs - get their shining moment in the Paris Color Project and it's been a treat to look through her project's archives and then happen upon a few of those scenes during my walks around the city.

Her book, "Paris in Color," will be a collection of her photos set to be published by Chronicle Books in Spring 2012, but if you can't wait until then, she also sells prints through her Etsy shop Little Brown Pen. Below, she explains the inspiration behind the project and the story she hopes to share through her Paris photos. But before she takes over, I have to share a line from the post where she shares the exciting news of her book deal: "As a small-town girl from Pennsylvania who moved to New York to pursue a writing career, and moved to Paris to pursue happiness, the one thing I've learned is that going for broke (and occasionally going broke) is worth it." Absolutely!

In January 2009, my husband, two sons and I moved to Paris. When we arrived, it was the dead of winter, but despite that, we did nothing but walk around. I had traveled to Paris many times before and I was not interested in monuments or tourist spots, so we just wandered around to get to know our new neighborhood.

As we walked, I noticed the way certain colors popped against the muted grays and whites of the buildings, and started to photograph them and post them to the blog. And that's how the color project was born. My readers asked for more, and I was happy to oblige so I kept posting.

The Paris Color Collections celebrate the city’s intimate details, often overshadowed by iconic landmarks. The photographs offer candid glimpses of the thoughtful craftsmanship, pedestrian pleasures and gracefully worn textures that cumulatively capture the unmistakable charm of Paris.

Images: courtesy of Nichole Robertson