Sunset at BNF
- 📍 Location: Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris, France
- 📅 Date: 2020
The four towers of the Bibliotheque nationale at sunset, seen across the empty roadway and tram tracks that run below the esplanade. The towers are lined up along the upper third of the frame; the whole lower half is asphalt, rails and street lamps, and that emptiness is deliberate.
I wanted the scale of the approach rather than a portrait of the building. Photographed from the esplanade, the library is four glass slabs and nothing else. Photographed from the road, with the lamps marching away and the rails converging, it becomes what it actually is: a piece of urban planning, a very large gesture at the edge of the city.
The light is low and orange and arrives from the side, lighting the face of the towers while leaving the street in shadow. At this hour the glass stops being transparent and starts reflecting the sky, which is the only moment of the day when these facades have any colour of their own.
Dominique Perrault designed them as four open books standing on end, and the design was criticised for years, not least for putting the books in the towers and the readers underground. Whatever one thinks of it, the silhouette is now part of the eastern skyline.
I wanted a photograph about the distance a building keeps from the people who use it, and about a sunset that flatters even the architecture it was not designed for.
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
