Escalator exit
- 📍 Location: La Defense, Paris, France
- 📅 Date: 2022
A long escalator tunnel at La Defense, photographed from the bottom, with the perforated metal walls converging on a lit opening and one small figure standing in it. Everything in the frame is a line, and every line points at the same place.
The composition is rigorously symmetrical because the architecture is, and because any asymmetry here would read as a mistake rather than as a choice. I stood in the exact centre of the two escalators and waited until there was exactly one person at the top. With two, the picture becomes a scene; with none, it becomes empty; with one, it becomes a destination.
The light is entirely artificial and mostly overhead, running down the ceiling in a row of ovals that repeat the perspective. I exposed for the bright exit so the tunnel would fall away into greys and blacks and the walls would keep only their texture.
This quarter is built on a slab, with everything technical underneath it, and moving between the two levels is a large part of daily life here. Nobody looks at these passages. They are simply the distance between the train and the office.
I wanted an image about arriving, made in the least photogenic place in the district.
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
