For a minute it looks like the Vikings are coming. We're in Temple Bar's Gallery of Photography. A number of tall, blond and beautiful Swedes are present for the opening of the first exhibition in Ireland of the work of the great French photographer, Jacques-Henri Lartigue. Mattias Palsson and Mats Viking, both from Kristianstad, and Linda Moberg from Karlstad are helping out at the opening.
The show is opened by Andre Raynouard, the French cultural counsellor. He tells us that Lartigue died in 1986, leaving 250,000 negatives to the French State. Born in 1894, he began taking photographs at the age of eight - and never seems to have stopped.
Lartigue was "a die-hard optimist and a philosopher of happiness," says Raynouard, "and he's remembered for that."
French ambassador Henri de Coignac and his wife, Nadine, stand nearby, smiling as we all view the stunning black-and-white photographs. Even the artist, Karl Grimes, who has been working in New York on an exhibition of his work at the Nikolai Fine Art Gallery, is making "one of my rare appearances" to view the work.
Peter FitzGerald, originally from Galway and editor of Circa, and Peter Neill, a curator from Belfast, are checking out the images. Peter Feeney, RTE's head of millennium programmes, says that Lartigue "didn't do it for a living. These images are what he wanted to record from his own life. They're extraordinary." We nod vigorously in agreement. The show runs until January 15th.