Over the last 12 months I have slowly started to add some new London projects to the site. Action or Extinction is another London bus project to complement An Elevated View. A Journey Along the Lea is my third project exploring London’s second river. The Not so Silent Line continues the transport theme but in Paris.
The Not so Silent Line
La Petite Ceinture (little belt) was built between the 1850s and 1870s to connect the main railway stations of Paris. Designed to carry passengers and freight, it soon become the first metro in Paris, but from 1900 onwards, with the first modern metro lines built, passenger numbers declined and in 1934 the line was closed to passengers. By the early 1990s freight traffic too had also largely ceased. Apart from a few sections that have been transformed into public parks, most remain a landscape in limbo – a secret (or not so secret) route around the city.
Paris Murs
I’ve been walking the same Paris streets and re-tracing my steps countless times to observe the ephemeral and the permanent of the street art of the city. While Mosko et Associés prowling tigers at Villa de L’Ermitage are long gone the urban tigers at Rue des Rosiers remain much as I first found them in 2006 – though someone has added ‘nature strikes back’ over the original work.
Paris Lovelocks
The lovelocks of Pont des Artes have transformed to form a wall of multi-coloured locks on the surface of the bridge – a pattern of little shapes declaring undying love and togetherness. As the real estate of the main bridge becomes oversubscribed the locks have found their way to the bridge approaches – and other bridges in Paris
Lovelocks
I first came across lovelocks on a bridge in a small italian town, Cannobio on Lago Maggiore. Over a year later I found the Pont des Artes in Paris covered in a multi-cultural spread of padlocks offering public declarations of undying love. Always known as a meeting place for lovers it was something new to see a tapestry of locks spread across the wire barrier.
Les murs de Paris encore
A recent trip to Paris in November 2011 encouraged me to re-trace some of the steps I had taken when I first created the series, ‘Les Murs de Paris’. I wanted to see what had changed and what had remained the same over the five years that had passed from my initial walks around the city. Many of the things I photographed in 2006 have long since gone; the wall murals at Abbesses metro station (all nice and white now), the prowling tigers at Ville de L’Ermitage and the cat at rue de cascades – replaced by sperm. But it was nice to see that the tigers in rue des rosiers are still there – though someone has added ‘nature strikes back’ over the original mural.
Les Murs de Paris
Walking through Paris from the fashionable 8ème to the rapidly gentrifying old working class districts to the North & North East brings you across a variety of signs and street art on the walls – official and unofficial. This series, collected over several years, also reflects the impermanence of the urban space – murals can be repainted, buildings torn down, districts regenerated and urban improvements created.