Travelling to the outskirts
“It’s not arriving that matters but getting there” (Stevenson).
Photography is a mental state for me. I came to it through travel. Conversely, the static nature of the image has the power to transport the viewer.
In the rich diversity of France’s landscapes, the suburbs remain “anti-travel” zones. Built hastily and with a short history, they far from project the image of romantic France that everyone agrees on. They are dormitory towns rather than tourist sites, business zones rather than historic areas.
Large scale is the urban form of choice. The principal of a classical city has been inversed. Constructions are no longer the result of a designed urban space, nor do they fit into the urban framework. What emerges is a series of platonic solid shapes, inspired by the points set out in the Athens Charter on social housing, where public spaces become cowardly and residual. Town planning has adapted to the motorised vehicle and pedestrians no longer serve a purpose.
Territories have geographical, economic, political and cultural centers, and suburbs are their nerve centers. They are as fragile as any entity that has grown too quickly, they nourish fantasy and reinforce a good number of questions concerning our time. “Travelling to the outskirts” is an extraspection. It’s the story of a real journey to the suburbs of “my town” that seemed to be, only yesterday, as far away as some of the world’s great cities.
Cornut is French from an Iranian-Iraqi family, born in 1977, he lives and works in Paris. A trained architect, today he works as a photographer. His photographs have been exhibited at the Rencontres d’Arles and elsewhere in France. Cornut is a member of the Dolce Vita artist collective.
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