Haussmann shadows
- 📍 Location: Near the Musee d’Orsay, Paris, France
- 📅 Date: 2022
A man crossing a narrow band of sunlight between two Haussmann buildings, with the street in deep shadow on either side and a puddle in the foreground returning the facades upside down. The figure is centred in the lit strip and is the only moving thing in the frame.
The photograph exists because of a gap between two roofs. For perhaps twenty minutes a day the sun reaches the bottom of this street, in a strip two metres wide, and anyone crossing it is briefly lit like a stage actor. The rest of the time there is nothing here at all.
I placed the puddle deliberately in the bottom third, because the reflection gives the picture its second half and doubles the stone. In black and white the wet asphalt reads almost as sky, which makes the composition feel inverted and slightly unstable.
Haussmann’s streets were cut for light and air, and their proportions mean that in winter most of that light lands on the upper floors. Street level gets the leftovers, in narrow bands, at fixed hours.
I wanted a photograph about waiting for a man to walk into a rectangle of sun, which is most of what street photography actually consists of.
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
