The World Mourns Paris Atrocities With Images Of Peace And Solidarity

Following the devastating atrocities in Paris on Friday night, in which 129 people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured, the world came together to show support for the French people.

One image in particular encapsulated the mood: an inked sketch, merging the symbol of peace with the Eiffel Tower. It was titled simply: 'Peace For Paris'.

Drawn and posted by French graphic designer Jean Jullien at midnight on Friday, the image quickly circulated.

In just hours, it was being printed on t-shirts, flags and banners.

Speaking to Wired the following day – Saturday 14th November – Jullien told of how the image took him maybe "a minute" to draw. "It was done on my lap, on a very loose sketchbook, with a brush and ink."

"It was a reaction," he said. "The first thing that came to me was the idea of peace, that we needed peace. I was trying to look for a symbol of Paris, and obviously the Eiffel Tower was the first thing that sprang to my mind. I just connected both of them. You know, there wasn’t much work process behind that. It was more an instinctive, human reaction than an illustrator’s reaction.

"It's a message of peace and solidarity," he continued. "I didn't do it to benefit from it in any way. It was my way of communicating with the people I know and showing that I was thinking about everyone affected in Paris. The fact that people shared it and used it, well, in a way that's all for the better. It's an image for everyone."

Other images which captured the feeling of solidarity with France, were those of historical landmarks around the world, lit-up in the colours of the French flag.

Such monuments included London’s National Gallery and the London Eye, Toronto's CN Tower, Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Berlin’s Brandenburg gate, Sydney's Opera House and Mexico’s Angel de la Independencia monument.

Another image which spread widely was that of pianist Davide Martello, who travelled 400 miles from Berlin with his grand piano, to play John Lennon's *Imagine *outside the Bataclan theatre.