Metro Mirrors

This photographic series, shot in 1999, explores the entrances of Paris metro stations — thresholds where movement, anonymity, and urban rhythm converge. At that time, many metro entrances were equipped with mirrors, ostensibly for safety and visibility. Yet in these mirrors, I found not surveillance, but reflection in its most poetic sense.

Using a vintage Canon EF and a 50mm lens, I positioned myself quietly at each entrance, observing the flow of passersby. My focus was set not on the people themselves but on the mirrors — those ephemeral surfaces that briefly held the city’s pulse. Working with a shallow depth of field, I allowed the figures to dissolve into softness and blur, transforming bodies into gestures and forms.

The resulting black-and-white images capture the fleeting choreography of daily life: the ascent and descent of commuters, the shifting of weight, the brushing of coats, the flicker of light on metal and glass. What remains are traces — ghostly silhouettes that seem both present and absent, physical and immaterial.

This work is less about documentation than about perception. It speaks to the language of movement, the tension between visibility and disappearance, and the way the city itself mirrors its inhabitants. Each photograph becomes a quiet meditation on form, gesture, and the blurred boundaries between self and reflection.