Captivating places. By Maxime GOYER

Bridge with a view

View of a bridge

The top photo was taken in mid-October 2015 in Venice (Italy). I wanted to take this photo because it represents Venice. I chose to take it from this angle because I wanted people to ask themselves “What is the woman painting?” The picture is colourful: blacks, greens, greys. There are no particular photographic effects.

When I took this photo, I heard people walking and chatting. I smelt the sea because Venice is on the sea. It was not too cold. I took this photo at the end of the day and I was a bit bored. During my holidays, we walked all the time…

On a little bridge, we see a woman sitting on a low stool, painting a watercolour on a large sketchbook, probably of the handsome buildings along one of the canals. She’s very concentrated. Fewer and fewer people take the time to admire places like this woman does. She is wearing a blue jacket with green collar, black trousers and leather shoes, black baseball cap, gloves. There’s an open box of watercolours on the ground. In between the railings, we see a house by a canal.

I decided to call my photo “Bridge with a view”, because it shows a bridge which is useful for people wanting a standpoint on the canal. This little bridge connects two islands. Venice is composed of one hundred and eighty islands that are connected by bridges.

I took the second photo in mid-February 2016, during the holidays. I chose this format because I wanted to show all of the Millau viaduct and the landscape.

I heard the cars and smelt the exhaust fumes. The temperature was pleasant but there was quite a lot of wind. There were few people at the rest stop. I felt bored because we had just driven for three hours.

In the foreground, we see a boy taking a photo of the car bridge. He is dressed in blue jeans, red sweat-shirt and a coat. In the middle distance, we can see greenery (hills and bushes) with a little road. In the background is the huge white Millau viaduct. It has seven arches. It was finished on December 16th 2004. This very long and magical construction connects the Causse Rouge and the Causse du Larzac. I call my photo “View of a bridge” because it is of (a boy taking a photo of) an impressive bridge.

The common title for my two photos is “Captivating places” because both the woman and the boy want to capture a scene, an atmosphere, a time and place. The woman does so slowly, the boy quickly. Also, the places they are looking at are obviously "captivating" to them.

The photos, seen side by side, make us think about the contrast in the way people see their (urban) environment. Most of us snap away at our surroundings with our cell phones; should we not take our time to contemplate what surrounds us, to better “see” and understand it (by drawing it perhaps)?