Readers take a photo-tour of Paris and Amsterdam.

Featured in Today's Pictures, the photographs of Africans in Paris, taken in 2001 by Alex Majoli, are intriguing, mesmerizing. Offering a glimpse into this underclass of French society, les sans-papiers, they document the very immigrants whitewashed out of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's portrait of the heavily ethnic 18^tharrondissement in the 2001 international box-office hit Amélie.

august offers these observations:

I think this may be the hardest fray to write for. Even though our language is visual, somehow it (or rather, mine) lacks the vocabulary for pictures. I've tried to write this post several ways, and each time it comes out like I'm talking about a cartoon.

Through most of the essay on Africans in France I was worried that the images would be of, well, black on tricolor. The only one that really matched that fear that of the Senegalese souvenir salesman in front of Montmartre. Another, of Noureini Tidjani-Serpos, had the Eiffel tower in the background, but my impression differed because the picture conveyed to me prestige ("this is the view from my office") rather than nationalism ("we are all French") or overdrawn sentiment ("how can such inequality be seen on the streets of Paris?").

The quotation is interesting:
"With photography, I like to create fiction out of reality. I try to do this by taking society's natural prejudice and giving it a twist."
Martin Parr

I wonder what he means by "natural prejudice"? And I wonder if Majoli's best images do something different. My favorite is the guy waiting on a train at the Gare du Nord. The captions tell you this is about Africans in Paris, but I like thinking of alternate shows this one could be in. "Suits I have loved." "Waiting for trains." "Concrete palettes." The photograph is of a drab world, but it nevertheless invites me in. And I love the lights on either side, as if the wall were a museum installation. It's fine photograph, worth thinking about in both its broadest and most quotidian contexts.

On a separate note, rundeep rebaptizes Amsterdam Penis Nation based on Martin Parr's racy images of the city's red light district:

I find it sort of refreshing that the "Sex in Amsterdam" pictures involve, predominantly, penises rather than female body parts. In this country, of course, women are exposed to the point of absolute dullness in everything but Saturday morning cartoons, and it's nice to see the noble male organ revealed as interesting.
On the other hand, I have to say that the pictures reveal to me the reason why women are usually featured over men. The penis is a really strange-looking thing. Not particularly attractive, bizaarely colored, and overall looks to be kind of poorly designed. (that fearful symmetry!)

Mind you, I am certainly fond of the equipment and its uses, but ya know, it's just not pretty.

This oft-overlooked Fray awaits your contribution. AC … 6:09pm PDT

Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006

So if you are around, stop in and let us look to how Socrates died at the end. I came into this world in an inarticulate scream; I would like to go out of it doing something better.—Meletus, Goodbye.

The Fray received word over the weekend that one of its finest posters, Meletus, has passed away from lung cancer at the age of 34. Slate welcomes anonymous contributions to its Fray. Meletus availed himself of that anonymity through the very end. We do not know the man who passed away on Sept. 13. We cannot even say with certainty that a corporeal man has died at all. We can say with confidence, however, that his voice will be missed.

We offer our condolences to his cherished wife and family. We haven't a formal protocol for funerals online, but those who knew him are invited to share their remembrances here. GA … 11:30am PDT

Saturday, Sept. 23, 2006