Louis Boulet

Muted colours and flattened, frontal views depict the "Samaritaine neighbourhood” which, more than offering just a stroll, presents a visual game, bowing to the idea that the district is based on a place, a department store, a business currently in hibernation. In varying the viewpoints, Boulet plays a form of hide and seek with the large building, which appears inaccessible to the eye but is then revealed on closer examination of the images. He invites us to ignore any distinctive and nostalgic elements, and instead focus on the Paris of today in all its ordinariness.  However, the focus is still on La Samaritaine – a reminder minus the pomp and ceremony of this "moment in time”, as defined by German philosopher Walter Benjamin – which enables us to rediscover it, piecemeal, in each of his photographs.