Lonely and alone. By Lucie BOURGAREL & Cécile BEY

Lonely lives

Quiet sunset

The top photo was taken at midday on a nippy December Saturday, from the stairs next to the elevator of the Place de Jaude shopping mall. It was raining and busy as usual. There was so much noise: cars, people, rain, and the usual sounds of the city. I felt a little lost.

There are many people with umbrellas; they are in a hurry, going about their business. Most of the time, they are in too much of a hurry to stop and talk, to even look at each other, to enjoy life! To my mind, this picture shows the sad side of living in a big city: stress and solitude. People become self-centred. Lonely lives illustrates this quite well.

The first developments in Place de Jaude were in 1660. A basin and a fountain were erected in the middle of the square. Saint Pierre des Minimes was built in 1663. In 1750, the square became a fairground where horses and wood were sold. From the 19th to the 20th centuries, the square started to become the favorite promenade for the citizens. The theater was built in 1894 and the statue of Desaix was erected in 1848. The statue of Vercingetorix appeared on the square in 1909. In the sixties, Place de Jaude was renovated and a quartier was destroyed in order to build the first big department store in 1890. The Carré de Jaude 2 opened in 2013 after five years of construction.

In Lonely lives, what I like most is the perspective. It brings beautiful “depth”. The natural light is nice too. In the background, we notice a guy walking in a relaxed manner in the middle of the road.

I took Quiet sunset in Pont-du-Château, from my bedroom window. It was around 18:30. I found the light totally beautiful so I decided to take pictures. It was so quiet and calm, there wasn't any noise. Only the wind was blowing. I felt appeased and happy. We can see Docteur Besserve Avenue. In the foreground, we can see the tiles of my roof. In the middle distance, there is the street without any cars. The sky was full of clouds. The sunset gave the photo a beautiful luminosity. There are no clouds in the part of the picture where the sun is setting. It was as if the sun had chased away all the clouds. The photo reflects perfectly my mood. I admire this view every day. The big tree on the right makes me think of a magic tree because it is really huge and when I was a kid, I used to pass every day in front of that tree and it looked like the big magic trees in the fantastic stories that I read. The house behind looks haunted... During the day, the street is really noisy but when the sunset begins, the people start going back home and there are no cars left.

My house was a coaching inn built in the 19th century. There were stables for the horses which transported the mail. Then, the house was redesigned by a wine maker. After this, the house was divided into several apartments. Then someone turned the place back into a house. We can find reminders of the inn in parts of the house, for example: there is a dumbwaiter which was used to take up the domestics’ laundry to the third floor, under the roof.

My photos are contrasted thematically (busy/quiet) and stylistically (black and white/color).