I found the series of photographs called “Souvenir d’un Futur” in my favourite online photography magazine “kwerfeldein” and loved it from the very beginning: French photographer Laurent Kronental documented the life of senior citizen living in large housing projects (called “Grands Ensembles”) in suburbs of Paris. Most of them were erected between 1950 and 1990 “in response to urban migration and the inflow of foreign migrants” (Kronental, 2011).
As Kronental states in the text that accompanies the photographs, these estates became lightning rods of public opinion and are still stigmatized by the media and marginalized in public opinion nowadays (Kronental, 2011). With his pictures he wanted to get away from those clichés and capture the life of the people who had lived in those areas their whole life. Kronental visited the Grands Ensembles and photographed the houses and their residents with a manual large-format camera for over 4 years.
Kronental, L. (2016) N/A. Available at: https://kwerfeldein.de/2016/09/27/laurent-kronental-souvenir-dun-futur/ (Accessed: 08 October 2019).
Kronental, L. (2016) N/A. Available at: https://kwerfeldein.de/2016/09/27/laurent-kronental-souvenir-dun-futur/ (Accessed: 08 October 2019).
Kronental, L. (2016) N/A. Available at: https://kwerfeldein.de/2016/09/27/laurent-kronental-souvenir-dun-futur/ (Accessed: 08 October 2019).
I like the beauty of the architecture and the melancholy that characterises the pictures. Kronental did a lot of research to find out more about the living conditions of the residents themselves, those urban veterans who have aged there (Kronental, 2011).
The massive concrete buildings with their architectural geometry seem somehow futuristic and deserted, only the unexpected presence of old people gives the photographs a stunning vibrancy.
Kronentaler, L. (2011) Souvenir d’un Futur. Available at: https://www.laurentkronental.com/Souvenir-d’un-Futur/2> (Accessed: 05 October 2019)
header photo: Kronental, L. (2016) N/A. Available at: https://kwerfeldein.de/2016/09/27/laurent-kronental-souvenir-dun-futur/ (Accessed: 08 October 2019).
Documentation of MEDI512 "Experiment" 