Stéphane Couturier
Berlin, Derrière Pariserplatz

Stéphane Couturier visualizes building sites, construction and demolition in all corners of the globe. He is fascinated by both urban development and the metamorphosis of individual buildings. His work successfully lays bare the essence of the city. He accomplishes that through utilizing a hyper realistic approach, with deep feeling for composition and colour.

The photograph, Berlin, Derrière Pariserplatz, shows a construction site close to the famous square adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate, where a parking garage and subway station are being built. It was only in the 1990s that reconstruction of the square, following the ravages of World War II, could commence, because due to the building of the Berlin Wall it was literally left in a strip of no-man’s-land.

This image is part of Couturier’s Urban Archaeology series, in which the artist treats the archaeology of a city as if it were the layers of a cake. For works such as these, Couturier pays meticulous attention to printing technique and to the material it is printed on – in this case, Ilfochrome (formerly Cibachrome), which gives maximum, and highly durable, colour intensity.