“Our photographic practice is characterized by an ongoing and systematic investigation of modern ruins, especially industrial era relics. Buildings dedicated to producing goods, ie. the factories, were the nexus of modern society and of urban development. Such is what we observed in Detroit, and later in Gunkanjima. Within a few decades, due to the unabating quest for higher efficiency, the industrial society generated a wide range of astounding buildings worldwide. Their designs served both as technical prototypes and as celebrations of industry’s greatness. The work of the German couple Bernd and Hilla Becher, who photographed these installations for over forty years with the utmost consistency and method, stands as striking proof. Little by little, the evolution towards a globalized economy as well as the inherent nature of industrial progress lead to the standardization of such architectural forms into simple adaptable blocs, rendering former constructions obsolete. These monumental, technical, repetitive and geometric casings, which are the very incarnation of order and human genius as well as embodiments of mankind’s alienation, now face our desire to remove them and their imminent return to nature. As early as 2001, we were looking around Paris, the North of France and Lorraine for such buildings before expanding our pursuit to Europe, the United States, Japan and South America… Urban policies and the standardization of the contemporary landscape are making this ruins disappear quickly. Despite a supposedly growing interest for industrial heritage, few remnants have been deemed important enough to warrant preservation and to enter an approved and official history. Photography as allowed us, on our own scale, to preserve a little bit of that consciousness.”Read more