DENNIS JENDERS
The Eiffel Tower, Paris · 2024
I pre-booked the top of the Eiffel Tower for sunset, my first full day alone in the city. It is bigger than you expect, and older than it looks, iron that stood through a war and continues to look over the city. I had champagne on the top deck and watched an overcast sky do what it could with the color. Then the fireworks started, all across Paris. I learned later it was the 13th, the city running early for Bastille Day, and it felt like the whole place was celebrating something I was only beginning to feel. The rings were up for the Games. I raised a glass of champagne to myself and the road ahead. My adventure started here.
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Where the Iron Bends
A black and white study of the Eiffel Tower’s ironwork, shot from directly beneath during a month in Paris around the 2024 Games. I skipped the postcard and went for the curve, the place where the engineering turns into something like grace.
The Approach
The Eiffel Tower from underneath in daylight, the whole sweep from base to spire. Made in Paris during the 2024 Games. The one frame in the set that lets the tower be the tower before I start taking it apart.
Straight Up
The Eiffel Tower from dead center, looking straight up the spine. Made in Paris during the 2024 Games. Up close the tower stops being a silhouette and becomes what it is, ten thousand pieces of iron doing one job.
Iron Mirror
An abstract frame of the Eiffel Tower’s inner structure, the iron folding into near symmetry. Shot in Paris during the 2024 Games. Part of an ongoing series about looking through and into architecture rather than at it.
Sparkles at Night
The Eiffel Tower at night, close and from below, the structure glowing against black. Made in Paris during the 2024 Games.
The Foot of It
The base of the Eiffel Tower, where the leg curves up off the ground and the whole impossible thing begins. Black and white, Paris, 2024.
The Rings
The Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower during the Paris 2024 Games, shot from below with the tower soaring past to the spire. The closing frame of a month in the city, and of a moment that will not assemble again.
Five Wide
The Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower during the Paris 2024 Games. The wide frame, made for the wall.
