Little Esther Goes to Paris

My dog Little Esther has been on a diet for the last week and a half.  She’s a clingy elderly gal, and our vet recommended that rather than put her in a kennel, we bring her with us to Paris.  The caveat being that we would need to get her and her carrier bag to fit the 17lb Air France weight restriction. 

I am traveling to attend Paris Photo, the largest photography art fair in the world, and an amazing place to introduce The Seymour Jacobs Photography Archive to galleries, museums, and collectors. The idea of attending Paris Photo had been hatched by Alla Efimova just over a month ago as we sat in a bar in Chelsea chatting about photography.  Alla lives in California and is the owner and founder of Kunstworks which helps advise artists and archivists like me to get their collections out into the world. We were talking about Paris Photo and she said simply, “We should go together”.

Flying to France to attend Paris Photo on short notice seemed impractical and slightly absurd, but over the next few days the idea rattled around in my brain. I generally do my best thinking in the hour before the alarm rings. It is during this state of dreamy musing that over the years I have decided to marry my husband, switch out of a career in radio, and remember that my lost keys were dropped in the basement. These moments have guided me through many beautiful decisions, and this time they guided me to book our flights to Paris. So now business cards have been printed, a one-sheet archive narrative has been created, and our bags are packed. We will meet up with Alla and head right out to the opening night of Paris Photo. At this point , my only real fear is that while in Paris Little Esther will share too much of Greg’s favorite dried sausage, tip the scales, and get stuck at the French border.