Good shoes take you good places
No doubt you have seen those aerial shots of shoes on superb floors all across social media. Well, Sebastian Erras takes it up a notch with a series of incredible tile floors he found all across the City of Lights. On Instagram, @parisianfloors is Sebastian Erras’ take on this trend and offers an unforgettable tour of Paris. Across his pictures, he invites us to rediscover Paris through his eyes, or rather, inside his shoes. Or as he puts it, this is the story of one guy, in one city, from one perspective.
Tell me a little bit about yourself? What do you do?
S.E.: I am Sebastian Erras, I was born in 1986 in the south of Germany. After my studies, I moved to Paris to learn french. For the past 4 years, I have been working as a freelance photographer, specialized in interior photography.
Why tiles? Where did you get this obsession from?
S.E.: I have always had a passion for design, patterns and symmetry. So when I came across the idea of doing this personal project it fitted perfectly with what I liked and do. I don’t know if I would call it an obsession, it’s rather an appreciation of the beauty and the hard work that went into creating these stunning mosaic floors for example.
You feature very original shoes… what’s your secret?
S.E.: Yes, indeed. In the beginning, I didn’t really put so much attention on what kind of shoes I was wearing. I was just wearing my favorite pair of shoes back then. When I saw that people started to leave a lot of comments as well about the pair of shoes I was wearing I realized that in fact the shoes are an important element in the pictures I post daily. So from now on I am trying to mix and match my shoes better to the floors I find. Sometimes when I go out hunting for floors I’ll bring a spare pair, just in case.
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I also live in Paris… but I’ve never seen such beautiful tiles. Where do you find them?
Most of the beautiful tile and mosaic floors I find are in hallways, cafés and typical Parisian bistros. They are everywhere, but most people just don’t notice them because no-one ever told them to look at them, stare down at the floor… or even that this city offers some of the widest variety of beautiful floors. So every time I am in Paris and I have some free time I walk around the city to discover new floors. I have also found some amazing floors in very well known monuments in Paris, like the Opera Garnier, le Petit Palais or the Louvre. They have beautiful floors but people that go there hardly ever look at them, as they are busier appreciating the art or the beautiful walls and ceiling decorations.
Since then, I’ve been walking around Paris, staring down my feet, trying to find exceptional tiles and floors… and I have to say, that he has quite an eye and I need to start going to new places around the city!
If Sebastian has given you the travel bug, the desire to start looking down instead of up, and, if you want to see more – other than his shoes – by Sebastian Erras, check out his professional work on interiors on his website.