A concrete maze. By Anthony PAYET & Bastien SÉRANGE

 

Where's the entrance?!

 

Where's the exit?!

The first photo was taken from a hill above Clermont-Ferrand, a point of view called "La Pierre Carrée". The second one was taken from a street along a military base, in front of my (Anthony's) home; it's a calm place. We chose not to use filters. The “natural” colours render best the atmosphere of the places. The first picture is a panoramic view, hence the landscape format. The second is in portrait format to emphasise the narrowness of the street.

When we took the photos, we felt good. It was fun working together. For the first one, as we were high up, we felt the cold wind. For the second, as we were inside the city, we didn't feel the wind.

In the first photo, in the foreground, there are mostly buildings. In the middle distance, just off-centre, there is the cathedral which dominates the scene and gives the photo a focus point. In the second photo, there is a long road that seems endless, framed by the wall of the military base on the left and railway tracks on the right hidden by bushes and small trees.

Photo 1 is entitled "Where’s the entrance?!" because you want to go down into the city but you don't know where the entry point is exactly. Photo 2 is entitled "Where’s the exit?!" because you are lost in the city but you do not know how to get out...

In photo 1, the main element is the cathedral. It is situated in the city centre, inside the old city. The cathedral has been on the same spot since the fifth century. The city was built around it. We see clearly on the picture that the further you go from it, the more modern are the buildings.

In photo 2, we can see a sign on the white wall: "Military property, no entry". Behind this long wall covered in barbed wire, there is a former military base. The oldest buildings date back to 1899. The railway line goes up to the former entrance to the base.

Photo 1 shows our city. We know it well. A stranger would probably see a city like any other, with ordinary buildings and nothing of particular interest apart from the black cathedral. For us, this view of Clermont-Ferrand brings back many memories. Each place is bound to events in our lives, important and insignificant ones, and we can spot particular places in relation to their personal meaning to us. Photo 2 evokes daily life, because it's the road I take every day to go to school. For us, this picture shows something that is very familiar whereas for others its significance is different: they will see an unusually empty street, lost somewhere in a place they do not know. It's a little ominous...

The common title of our photos is: "A concrete maze" because the city can be compared to a labyrinth. In photo 1, you are outside the labyrinth, dominating it. You want to enter it. In photo 2 you have been trapped in the maze and are searching for the exit! When you have lived a long time in a city, you know its maze of streets, its secret corners, its dangerous nooks and safer crannies. You do not feel lost; it is your stomping ground. If you are new to the place however, you may feel you can master it, find its “meaning”, but you often have the sensation of being lost. You may even want to leave it… Our photos tell this story.

On a more “urban geography” note, we can say that our photos illustrate the fact that cities get bigger. This is positive because they have to modernize and to attract economic activity. Photo 1 shows a small city in a rural region (cf. the background). The historic centre is surrounded by the newer quartiers. Photo 2 illustrates that it sometimes takes many years to regenerate parts of the older districts.