Paris, France
1996

We were into probably our second hour of people-watching at a park – the name eludes me – in the middle of Paris. It was beautiful. Couples courting, kids chasing pigeons, moms pushing prams, old men reading newspapers. Everything was peaceful, and balanced, and good.

It was hard not to notice the elderly couple passing by. The scene was almost surreal.  It was as if everything around us was in fast forward, apart from these two people, swaying back and forth from left to right, holding each other tight as they walked. Actually, it was not surreal. It was romantic.They were locked into a dance of mutual support, that in a way told everything about them.

The swaying got so extreme at times that I honestly thought they would topple over. They didn’t. I pointed the camera at them, waited for the human pendulum to swing to its farthest point, tilted it until they were level and snapped the shot.