Le passage, 2024

Christian Goetghebeur  

The Passage — Incandescent Figures

In the escalators of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, three silhouettes engage in a succession of metal arches. The repetition of the structures, the perspective, and the reflections create a movement that draws the gaze toward the back of the image.

In the foreground, a figure seen from behind occupies the center of the composition. Its presence gives a human dimension to this monumental architecture, while the other two characters seem to gradually be absorbed by the space.

With my photographic writing Sublimations, I explore here the metamorphoses of the visible. The color treatment profoundly transforms the perception of this familiar place: the electric blues, the incandescent yellows, and the intense reds redistribute the relationships between bodies, light, and structures.

The singularity of this photograph lies in the encounter between architecture designed for movement and a composition that seems to draw the figures toward an almost unreal space. The successive arches become a succession of thresholds, while the silhouettes retain their presence within this chromatic construction.

The viewer is invited to travel through this perspective and rediscover an emblematic place in Paris through a renewed visual experience.

Technique and edition

Color silver gelatin print on Fujiflex Crystal Archive backing on Dibond with lifted edges.

Limited edition of 7 copies, all formats included.