Within 43 years the density of the French motorway net work increased from 1,010 kms to 11,882 kms. Daily an average of 26 621 vehicles take each of these roads. Standardization is its key word : a rest area every 10 kms, a service station every 40 kms, a call station every 2 kms.
Motorway is a no-man’s land. A place where we only transit. It’s not an entity as such.
When we enter a motorway our environment, our usual landmarks disappear. Whatever the lengthof our trip our mind is set on the long strip of asphalt.
Meanwhile we forget that this road network crossing our country is real.
Whether it’s historical or expansion due to the urban population density this network is crossing or running along inhabited areas. Most of these housings are hidden to our eyes by high walls or thickembankment slopes. Protecting them from our noise, protection us from their existence.
Nonetheless exceptions do exist.
Houses which are intersections between humanity and no man’s land.. Places where Man chose tocarry on living.
It is these houses, a testimony to our humanity, of our identity, that I photographed. By static shots,frontally. Opposing the mobility and the lack of identity forced on us by the motorway.
