A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog

Happy Days!
April 15, 2014
Update: Bruce passed away seven months after I wrote this. RIP Chef Robertson. Scarborough is a tiny outpost on the Atlantic Coast, beyond Misty Cliffs, south of Cape Town. A three-way stop sign, a few houses, a long deserted beech and plush fynbos on the hills above; one normally doesn't come to Scarborough. This is just a pretty drive-through hiccup on the way from Kommetjie to Simon's Town, or maybe even Cape Point. But it is home to chef Bruce Robertson, a...
The Print Shop is Live!
April 8, 2014
I have announced it multiple times, retracted it because of technical issues, have kept talking about it... Well all things come in due time. The shop is now live! A carefully curated collection of photographs from Vincent Mounier Photography galleries as well as from this very blog are now available for purchase as mounted fine arts prints. When an image in the VMP galleries is available as a print, there will be below the photo a link to the relevant print section,...
Glimpses of a South African Winter
April 4, 2014
It was the chilly month of June, or wintertime in the southern hemisphere. The plane tree had stripped down to a bare minimum. Poppies were brought to the kitchen table. Flames danced at night in the fireplace. Blankets and sweaters were drawn. And the terrace dinner table is an anachronism, at home on this blog. Winter nights being too cold to eat out, this was taken in January...
Once Upon a Time, le Club
March 29, 2014
For four years, I bounced from one tropical location to the next, tanned as a chocolate bar and barely drying up between dives. Two of those years were spent aboard the Club's sister sailing ships, Club Med 1 and Club Med 2, largest sailing vessels in the world. Being a dive instructor for Club Med tought me a lot about diving and even more about people. Unfortunately, it also tried to teach me to dance and I lost my inner left meniscus to a French Cancan in rough seas....
A Few Steps Above The Clutter
March 20, 2014
On our last Saturday walk we aimed for a ridge that stretches along the northwestern side of Manhattan like a spine. It features Inwood Park at its northern tip, then the Cloisters and finally a section of the Upper West Side we had never really explored. A gigantic cathedral greeted us at the top of a flight of stairs through a narrow park. The Cathedral of St John the Divine, isn't. It is huge, though, and fenced by a barbed wire perimeter, the tall stone walls beggin...
Wandering Across Times Square
There still isn't much to say. Times Square is a flirt between good and evil, between science-fiction come true and the decadence of materialistic America. But mostly these days, walking around and staring at the giant displays, I get a sense of doom. As though we have gone too far and will soon pay for our arrogance. Times Square represents the essence of human greed. Incredible amounts of money are spent here trying to convince people that they lack something, that th...
Queen Mary 2 and Liberty
As I am working hard to bring the Print Shop section of VMP online, I have been browsing through thousands of pictures and occasionally find little gems that never seemed to have made it to the blog. This is one of them. I really like its absolute lack of scale or reference point. It was taken in Brooklyn, while the QM2 was docked in our Red Hook terminal. VIP passengers: "Oh, ah!" Officer: [yawn]. The bow of Queen Mary 2 with a Statue of Liberty backdrop
Far Above New York City
February 23, 2014
After a nightmarish summer working bizarre shifts in a futile attempt at managing mad crowds and the absolute stillness of union employees, I left the Empire State Building Observatory almost four years ago with the firm intention of never going back. Yet when my current workplace shifted from the Financial District and its blood-thirsty bankers to the bloody tourists of Mid-Town - in other words from ticks to fleas - I eventually decided that, against all odds, I would...
White Out
February 15, 2014
Stillness through motion. The world outside the train is white. Light snow has been falling since we hopped off Manhattan. Hours stretch into one another. Short stops in small towns break the rhythm of blurred fields, skinny trees, icy water and dull skies. Penn Station was true to itself, a zoo, wild characters and wandering travelers. People hunched on cell phones and chewed donuts. Now wi-fi is spotty at best and they are eating on-board hot-dogs that cost more th...
New skin for Vincent Mounier Photography!
February 13, 2014
Leading the way towards a new white minimalist skin, the main photo website is now live in its new livery. The new back-end  there is going to allow me to update these galleries much more regularly to reflect the best of this blog's content. Soon, the second stage of the release will involve the long-awaited Print shop where select photos will be available for purchase as fine art prints. Then finally, the blog will be adjusted to a pale skin to match the first two. ...