Benoît Chailleux was born on April 10th 1973, and grew up in the suburb of Nantes, France. He works as an architect but the majority of his subjects are urban spaces built without an architect. He’s interested by places built more for cars than for people. He studied architecture from 1992 to 2000 using photography as an analytic tool and a way to explore urban spaces. He studied in particular the evolution of the townscape along radial roads that allow going through the city from its suburb to its center, in the style of a geologist who would study the evolution of the earth from cutting through a rock. The different manners to build the city between yesterday and today are revealed along radial roads. The history of the city scrolls along this ribbon of asphalt. His purpose is to capture on film the city that is constructed now. It could be in the city center where it builds on itself permanently or in the suburbs. He is particularly interested in interstitial spaces made by urban sprawl and gaps between areas dedicated to mobility. Today we share Benoît’s series titled La Loire.
La Loire
“This ongoing series, started in 2009, documents the riverside of La Loire. Nantes was formed along this river. Its port has long been the main reason for its development (the triangular trade made his fortune). The port was livened up by the loading and unloading ships and by shipyards until the 80’s. Now, boats with drafts ever deeper have to dock at St Nazaire, more downstream. Today, these places do not have the function for which they were built. They have become residual spaces although they are the heart of the city. The purpose of this series is to reveal the atmosphere that the water give to these linear altered territories.”
To view more of Benoît’s work, please visit his website.