What would Paris be without its night life? At night there’s not only a changed rhythm but also a change in perception: It is a different view when the artificial light expels the dark, the shops are closed and another kind of bustle wakes up. Even though most of the pictures are taken in the quarter of Pigalle on New Year’s Eve 1989/1990, not the screaming advertisements and the bustling night life dominate the scenes but the melancholy observations on the edge.

Night changes the rhythm of cities: pedestrians hurry past to meetings or to get home. Rubbert’s pictures “light up” the nightly atmosphere: people in cafés and bars, young people in front of music clubs or on their way home from “late night shopping”. The elongated contours and light traces of moving motifs caused by the long exposure express the volatility and dynamic of the big city. There is always activity. The special atmosphere of Paris and the everyday life of its inhabitants are the central motif: the observation of people which illustrates that the street is still the real 'stage of life'.

The nightly life in the streets of Paris has many faces. Some of them are shown here …