Forgotten Housing Estates In Paris Captured By Laurent Kronental

Words

For the ongoing series ‘Souvenir d’un futur‘, French photographer Laurent Kronental documents life at the ‘Grands Ensembles’, the large housing projects in Paris, since four years. Built during the housing crisis between the 1950s and the 1980s, the decaying buildings are located in the city’s suburban area. Using an analog camera, Kronenthal captures melancholic images of the senior citizens as well as the concrete buildings. The exhibition at Bibliothèque National de France will run until February, 7.

In a statement about the project, Kronenthal says: “Marked by the passing of time, these massive, gray buildings, like their elder residents, bear the signs of long lives. And yet, in these wrinkled faces and cracked walls, in the energy of the bodies and of the facades, emerges the pride and pulse that we thought had disappeared.”

Jacques, 82, Le Viaduc et les Arcades du Lac, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, 2015

Joseph, 88, Les Espaces d’Abraxas, Noisy-le-Grand, 2014

Les Tours Aillaud, Cité Pablo Picasso, Nanterre, 2014

Les Orgues de Flandre, 19e arrondissement Paris, 2014

Josette, 90, Vision 80, Esplanade de La Défense, 2013

Lucien, 84, Les Espaces d’Abraxas, Noisy-le-Grand, 2014

Jean, 89, Puteaux-La Défense, 2011

Le Pavé Neuf, Noisy-le-Grand, 2015

Joseph, 88, Les Espaces d’Abraxas, Noisy-le-Grand, 2014

Paulette, 83, Les Damiers, Courbevoie, 2015

José, 89, Les Damiers, Courbevoie, 2012

Roland, 85, Les Arcades du Lac, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, 2015

Denise, 81, Cité du Parc et cité Maurice-Thorez, Ivry-sur-Seine, 2015

All images © Laurent Kronenthal

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