French photographer Zacharie Gaudrillot-Roy presents the ongoing ‘façades’ series, which deconstructs images of urban landscapes down to the mere surfaces of the buildings that populate them. The digital architectural interventions illustrate cities, small towns, parking lots and pedestrian pathways, whose homes and apartment buildings bear the eerie absence of construction’s mass, only the superficial brick and concrete exterior skin remains. wandering through foreign city streets, gaudrillot-roy observes and imagines what lies behind the walls he passes — a glow through a lit window, noise from a television, laughter and tears. he explains, ‘this series offers a vision of an unknown world that would only be a picture, without intimate space, with looks as the only refuge.’
"The façade is literally the first thing one sees of a building, as its surface. It can be imposing, superficial but can also suggest safety. I've always liked to wander around in a city, I walk through the streets with those questions in mind : what will happen if we stick to that first vision? If the daily life of “The Other” was only a scenery ? This series thus offers a vision of an unknown world that would only be a picture, without intimate space, where looks are the only refuge.
In my latest works, I was interested in showing these architectural surfaces at night enlightened by lampposts.
This, I think, intensifies the urban setting side. Is this artificial ? Not entirely in my view. Putting forward these surfaces encourages the viewer to take interest in the architecture and what it could shelter. I use photomontage as a willingness to make the observer care about the hidden subjects, as an invitation to curiosity."
