#shootGR_Paris - A photo walk at RICOH Imaging Square

Cast your mind back a couple of years, when we were enjoying time with our friends and families, and were blissfully unaware of how a microscopic organism could have such a drastic impact on our day-to-day lives. Then as the 2020 continued to unfold, events, concerts, sports – everything cancelled. We had to adapt both in our personal and professional lives. Reality hit as we quickly realised the dream of working of working from home also came its challenges – we picture the baby and toddler making their debut during a live BBC interview.

Business activities within RICOH also had to also adjust in-line with government guidelines, bringing focus to the wider global impact. This meant that the photo walks and meet-ups we had planned also had to be postponed – reflecting the impact faced by the wider photographic community.

During lockdown, the GR Cites Project was launched, where we encouraged GR photographers to go through their existing photos and update them with hashtags to reflect where the images were taken, such as #shootGR_Paris, #shootGR_Berlin, #shootGR_London etc. We were really pleased with the positive response from communities around the world, with the number of hashtags increasing in the hundreds each day.

As time went on and medical advances were made, restrictions were gradually lifted. Restaurants and bars opened and we were able to meet our loved ones once again. Whilst leaning to live with the virus, we found ourselves thinking about planning activities again – so we decided to make a trial event held in Paris. Thanks to the GR City hashtags it was easy to find photographers using the #shootGR_Paris hashtag. We quickly received a lot of response from GR owners who told us that they would love to attend. So, we planned the photowalk route and made arrangements for the event to be hosted at RICOH Imaging Square Paris where we previously held the GR Cities Gallery Exhibition.

We wanted to keep the numbers fairly limited during the trial, so we had around 20 attendees in total and called in the support of Edouard Bierry and Thomy Keat to host the event – two photographers who we were familiar with through their work with GR. The photowalk took place in the 10^th Arrondisment in Paris, stopping at Rue Mer – a popular area for street art, then onto Canal Saint-Martin to explore the architecture in a relaxed setting, with the reflections on the water providing the perfect backdrop. Finally, it was onto the Republique Metro Station featuring busy walkways and multiple forms of transport.

Then it was back to RICOH Imaging Square Paris for a bite to eat, a drink and to share the images taken during the day. Overall the event was a huge success and received a lot of positive feedback from the photographers. So much so that we are already planning future events for #shootGR_Berlin and #shootGR_London – we very much hope to see some of you there!

For those of you who missed out on the event you’ll be able to find a video on the RICOH GR Photographer YouTube channel: