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On The Surface (Palimpsest IV)
2023 - Now
At the end of the 19th century, Eugène Atget undertook a systematic project to photograph the old districts of Paris and the storefronts of small businesses that were destined to disappear in the face of modernization and the rise of department stores. For over three decades, he documented not only the aesthetics of these spaces but also the social and cultural history of a society undergoing profound changes. Today, a similar phenomenon is unfolding with the gradual disappearance of downtown shops in small towns and mid-sized cities, replaced by large commercial areas on the outskirts. With the advent of digital simulation and printing techniques, it has become common practice to cover these vacant stores with trompe-l’œil façades, creating the illusion of active shops so as to lessen the sense of decline for local residents. These trompe-l’oeil are here the subject of this series, combining the surface of the storefront glass with the photosensitive surface to create a mise-en-abyme blurring the line between reality and representation, keeping out of sight the desert of the real.
This series is part of a larger body of work initiated in 2019, titled Palimpsests. This term refers to a parchment on which the original writing has been erased to make way for a new text, the initial text still partly visible in the background. Indeed, these projects take the form of contemporary rewritings of iconic works from the history of photography, translated into the new context of digital society. Initiating a dialogue with techniques and theories of the past, they offer a reflection on the concept of post-photography and question the evolution of the medium in the era of its alleged demise.
* Due to the frequent questions raised by this series, it should be noted that these images do not involve the use of artificial intelligence and have not undergone any retouching beyond basic adjustments.
Eugene Atget, Shop windows :
