Philippe Sarfati

Title: Territories

About the Photo:

These images are taken from a long-term project called Territories.

The first impulse behind this experimental project was to inject street photography methodology – moslty, the reliance on serendipity and spontaneous behaviour – into architectural photography. Inspired by Ila Beka and Louise Lemoine’s films, I wanted to show buildings through the eyes of their users, to only present spaces as inhabited territories. Acclaimed works of architecture become dramatic backdrops to everyday scenes, their radical geometries framing simple acts.

This series plays with the notion of contextual portraiture.
On one hand, architecture is used as a frame, focusing compositions onto a subject with bold volumes and strong lines.
On the other hand, people give meaning and scale to the spaces shown. Their attitude builds our perception of the building’s atmosphere.
We are shaped by our environment, and we shape it continuously and subconsciously, by the simple act of inhabiting it.