mit liao

This photo journal was originally for my school assignment for a Photojournalism class in Speos Paris, October 2024. It was made possible thanks to the funders of “Petite île” Chih-ya and Po-hsuan for letting me interview and photograph them. Thank you 🙂

It was 5:00 in the morning, I was waiting in front of the bakery “Petite Île” in Paris to meet Chih-ya & Po-hsuan. The street behind me was empty, dark and freezing cold, but the lights came out of the bakery somehow gave me a little warmth.

After a while, Chih-ya showed up at the door, we had a simple greeting and a quick explanation of my purpose, then I followed her into the basement, which is also the main kitchen, there I saw Po-hsuan was already working on their daily routine.

Wang Chih-ya and Chuang Po-hsuan are both Taiwanese, they started this bakery in 2022, since then, they always wake up very early in the morning in order to fulfill all the demands from customers, and normally it’s like a race against time.
But luckily for me, demands are less during holidays, so they were not super busy on this day. We can still have some conversations while they were working.

When talking about breads, they were very serious. They try to make everything by themselves, while also think about being healthy and authentic. Maybe it’s because of their artisan and designer background, they simply refuse to compromise the quality and the aesthetic of their products.

Before putting dough into the oven, Chih-ya asked me if I want to take a photo of the “scoring”. I didn’t know what that is, so she explained to me that it’s because the dough will expand in the oven, the purpose of scoring is to make them expand into a more expected and pleasant shape and look.

Around 6:00, the delivery man arrived with their orders of ingredients. I followed Po-hsuan to the ground floor, and took some photos while he was helping the delivery man with the packages.

While I was in the bakery, I realized that the space is actually very confined, they need to run up and down between work spaces, but still managed to keep everything organized and in sync, which is impressive.

In the basement, there is another narrow hallway with a tiny workspace at the end, which can only fit one person at a time. Po-hsuan said that before the renovation for the bakery, this space was very humid and sombre, and he spent a lot of time and effort just to make it what we see today.

There are some stickers and posters on the wall which reveal the style and personality of Chih-ya and Po-hsuan. Before coming to Paris, they both used to work as designers, so they still enjoy designing and making things on their own, and also like to collect works from other artists.

When I saw them for the first time, there was one thing impossible to ignore, which is their tattoos. Tattoos may be popular in France, but it’s not so common in Taiwan. Most Taiwanese people still have this stereotype that tattoos is for gangsters. Chih-ya recalled that there was a girl who was introduced to them, but after seeing them with all the tattoos, she was too scared to talk to them, and eventually got cold feet and left.

In addition to their tattoos, Chih-ya and Po-hsuan sometimes looks quite serious, so if it wasn’t for the assignment, I would have never talked to them, not to mention to photograph them. But after a while, I found that they are very kind and amiable, just like most of the Taiwanese people.

After most of the bakery for the first batch was done, Po-hsuan and Chih-ya finally have some time for a little break. When they casually talked about the 4 cats they brought from Taiwan to Paris, I was very surprised. Isn’t it expensive to bring pets abroad? I asked. Yes, it was very expensive, Chih-ya answered, but what else can we do? They are family, of course we have to bring them.

Around 7:30, the part-time salesperson also arrived at the shop. They started to move the breads onto the shelves. While working, they occasionally talked about some trivial or funny things happened in daily life, which I felt like they were a family too.

Even though it’s a small bakery, they put a lot of thoughts into the interior design. Wooden cabinet was used with the yellow lighting to create a warm and cosy atmosphere. This style to me is very reminiscent of Taiwan, and made me a little bit home sick.

Previously, the shop was a fish market. During renovation, they found that some parts of the wall is really old but still have this beautiful pattern, so they decided to keep it. In the middle, there was a book of skateboarding and photography, these two things are also Po-hsuan’s passion.

As soon as the shop was opened at 8:00, customers started to show up.
Before the business gets too busy, I requested to take a photo of them in front of the shop, they accepted. This was also my final photo.

Before leaving, I asked them if they have any dreams? No, they answered without any hesitation, followed by a rather complicated laugh. We don’t think about dreams, Chih-ya continued, we just try our best to live our lives here, day by day, that’s all.