Look at what we no longer see day after day in the streets of Paris: the asphalt and the neglected who trample it.
Like a geographer or an archaeologist, I first sought, photographic stroller, to record the aesthetic variations, due to the bad weather and the passing of days, of the carpet of tar and other petroleum derivatives which cover the streets of Paris .
Then, I superimposed these last photos, composed of a complex of bitumen and stony aggregates, on the most fragile people that I accidentally photographed during my wanderings in the streets of Paris. Forgotten by the eyes or drowned in the crowd, these city dwellers end up merging with the environment in which they live. Like statues or chameleons, they become one with the asphalt. However, we meet them every day by our side in a bus shelter, at the corner of a bar or on a bench, in the street, anywhere, but we no longer pay attention to it.
My series of portraits “L’ asphalte parisien”, a light on strangers whom my lens tries to bring out of darkness.
Christian Barbé
February 2020
Watch what we no longer see day after day in the streets of Paris ...