honorable mention
Sylvain Heraud france
title
Les Demeures Invisibles : Isaura
The photographs were taken in various places : villas, castles, factories... The vast majority of them are abandoned, and are strongly decayed. However, the photographic approach helps to enhance these sites and offer them a last tribute.
This photographic work is organized in several series. Each photo represents interiors of buildings, which could belong to the cities described in the book of Italo Calvino. These series translate the functioning and architecture of each city of the book. This photographic project is therefore called Les Demeures Invisibles (Invisible Dwellings) in relation to the book The Invisible Cities.
This photo series refers to the city of Isaura.
Isaura has been built on a deep underground lake. Wherever its inhabitants drill the subsoil, they eventually find water. Thus an underground gallery has been created, up to expand its area. The wells abound in Isaura, to the point of giving it a nickname : the city of a thousand wells.
The photos of the series were taken in India. The inhabitants build very large size wells, which are called Bâoli, in order to collect the rainwater and fight against the drought. Each city has loads of Bâoli: their number may reach several tens per city. Thus, Indian cities and Isaura are cities of a thousand wells.
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entry description
This photo project was inspired a posteriori by the book The Invisible Cities of Italo Calvino. This work reports Marco Polo’s travel stories to the Chinese emperor Kublai Khan, who asks the explorer to discover its vast empire. Upon his return Marco Polo goes to the palace of the emperor and describes the atmosphere and the structure of each city into details as real as phantasmagoric.The photographs were taken in various places : villas, castles, factories... The vast majority of them are abandoned, and are strongly decayed. However, the photographic approach helps to enhance these sites and offer them a last tribute.
This photographic work is organized in several series. Each photo represents interiors of buildings, which could belong to the cities described in the book of Italo Calvino. These series translate the functioning and architecture of each city of the book. This photographic project is therefore called Les Demeures Invisibles (Invisible Dwellings) in relation to the book The Invisible Cities.
This photo series refers to the city of Isaura.
Isaura has been built on a deep underground lake. Wherever its inhabitants drill the subsoil, they eventually find water. Thus an underground gallery has been created, up to expand its area. The wells abound in Isaura, to the point of giving it a nickname : the city of a thousand wells.
The photos of the series were taken in India. The inhabitants build very large size wells, which are called Bâoli, in order to collect the rainwater and fight against the drought. Each city has loads of Bâoli: their number may reach several tens per city. Thus, Indian cities and Isaura are cities of a thousand wells.
back to gallery
