Pyramide du Louvre

About the Pyramide du Louvre

Pyramide du Louvre is one huge pyramid built with glass and metal. While this building is stunning and perfect to photograph, it also serves as the actual main entrance for the Louvre museum.

The structure is designed by Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei. He was given the assignment to modernize the courtyard of the Louvre. The building is 33 years old. Its construction started in 1985 and was fully constructed at the beginning of 1989. The pyramid has a width of 35,42 meters on each side, and a height of 21,65 meters.

What you might not have noticed are the other smaller pyramids that surround the structure. There are three of them. Once you enter the Louvre, you will see another one, displayed upside down.

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Summary

Because I had an assignment during the Focus Art Fair in Paris, we rented an Airbnb in the center of Paris, within a gentle 10-minute walking distance of the Louvre. The assignment was initiated by Vyankka Pauline, who I've met on the Hive Blockchain. She had an exhibition during the Art BOOM Focus Art Fair in Paris, which was held at the Carrousel du Louvre. Since the event was the next day, I had to scout the area. One; I would need to take photographs of the Pyramid, and two; I needed to locate the entrance beforehand, as it was my first time visiting the Louvre.

Photographing Pyramide du Louvre was on my bucket list (for over 9 years), this reminds me of a Dutch saying, which is just too funny when translated straight to English. 'Two flies, one clap', it's the equivalent version of the English 'Killing two birds with one stone' saying. And, it's nothing but the truth. It gave photographing the structure additional layers of importance as well. You could say that photographing the glass pyramid was both as important and exciting to me.

We visited the place around 7 PM, which gave me a small window to photograph it right before the Sun was about to set, and gave me the full experience of photographing the Louvre during the magic hour. I couldn't wait. Lackofcolor was boring herself to death (after 1,5 hours, lackofcolor was sick of the view of dumb people making TikTok videos in front of the Louvre, as she was waiting for me to finish photographing, so we could explore and enjoy the area together), as I continued photographing and enjoying our presence at Pyramid du Louvre. It would be weird to say to enjoy the presence of the historical buildings, right? But these historical buildings surrounding Pyramid du Louvre were breathtaking. I was getting goosebumps just by looking at it. The detail, the history, the old craftsmanship we rarely see these days. The combination of modern art and the brute historical achievements this place enkindles is just mind-boggling to me.

My worries about how packed the place would be were lifted once I saw that there weren't many people. Of course, there were some, but I was afraid it may have been overpacked. However, people never fail to amaze me with how rude some can be. One of the burdens a photographer has is to be very patient when visiting landmarks that are packed with people. While most are very understanding, polite, and patient, some just looked at you and started to take pictures right in front of you. I returned the favor with some long exposures in front of them. Childish? Yes, but my time is just as valuable as yours. I mean, I always try to minimize myself when I take photographs with my tripod. So instead of standing, I lower myself or take weird positions (lol), just so people behind me still can take photographs (or have something funny to look at).

While taking photographs, I was sure to keep my camera clean. I remember having photographs of Paris, 9 years ago, that contained so much dust, it was truly demotivating to edit and clean them. To my surprise, after one camera-lens switch, I had so much dust in it, so I immediately started to clean my sensor again before going further.

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Pyramide du Louvre

Taking photographs of the Pyramid was a little dream come true. Nine years ago, I didn't want to visit it as my attention and interest weren't much about the 'glass building', but as I grow older, my interest in crafts and art grew and I started to regret not seeing it in person. Seeing Pyramide du Louvre in movies and series didn't help either, as a matter of fact, it kind of fed my hunger and curiosity to see it for myself even more.

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The Pavillon de l’Horloge

There is some history when it comes to the Pavillon de l'Horloge building, a stunning piece of architecture. While it was built in the early 17th century, it received the name 'Clock Pavilion' two centuries later, as there were clocks added to the two main facades in the 19th century.

The building has so much detail, that it is almost unbelievable. The work done is just absurd, and you can tell that the French enjoy good aesthetic-looking cities. Paris is, after all, the capital.

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Louis XIV almost smashed his own statue after receiving it 20 years later

This statue of Louis XIV is so impressive, that I had to look it up. It happens to be an exact copy of the statue in Versailles. You know what they say eh? It's so nice, got to have it twice. This specific statue holds a funny story. When Louis XIV was 27 years old, he commissioned a statue from a famous artist called Bernini, which many believed to become the next Michelangelo. Well, it turned out Louis XIV had to wait twenty years for his statue to be finished. After seeing the finalized artwork, Louis XIV was furious and almost smashed the statue into a billion pieces.

Luckily, he cooled off and send the statue to an almost hidden location in the gardens of Versailles where he then asked François Giradon to fix it. The statue looked so much like the one made by Marcus Curtius, it survived the French Revolution where all statues of French kings were destroyed. What a story.

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La Pyramide Inversée

To top things off, the architect thought it would be cool to have the "other half" of the glass and metal pyramid upside down in another area. Many people enjoy taking selfies here. Believe it or not, there are actual people in front of this photograph. LOL. While brushing them away, I noticed it was actually one of the artists from the Focus Art Fair (Sarah Soh, sorry!) that I spoke with.

I absolutely love the way how the Sun is shining through the glass pyramid, creating nice shadows on the massive ceiling of Carrousel du Louvre.

I've included a short clip of how I edited the last photograph in this post. It took me quite a while to get it right, for your convenience I've speeded up the clip. This image took about 2 hours to finalize, which isn't too crazy! Check the clip here :)

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Nailed it?

Damn, I love these photographs a lot! The people in the photographs don't bother me much, I actually think they contribute to the overall look and feel. I mean, it would be nearly impossible to photograph the Louvre without people in such a short amount of time. Of course, it would be possible if you stayed a little bit longer in Paris. Maybe, someday. For now, my needs to photograph the Louvre is more than satisfied. The story about Louis XIV cracked me up. It's nice to read and learn something new every day, right? haha. Which photograph is your favorite? If you have any. Hope you enjoyed!

Cheers,
Ruben

PS: a huge thank you to @hiddenblade for making this trip possible! SHOUTOUT to her!

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