Thierry Cohen & Gustave Le Grey

Paris 48° 50’ 55’’ N 2012-08-13 lst 22:15

39 x 60 inch pigment print

Edition of 3

This beautiful photograph appeared on one of many imgur posts that are usually reserved to pictures of cats and nerdy things. It was taken by Parisian photographer Thierry Cohen, in a project entitled Villes Enteintes (Darkened Cities). Cohen seeks out views that resonate for him and notes the time, angle, and latitude and longitude of his exposures. The Danziger Gallery website explains: 

"As the world rotates around its axis the stars that would have been visible above a particular city move to deserts, plains, and other places free of light pollution.  By noting the precise latitude and angle of his cityscape, Cohen is able to track the earth’s rotation to places of atmospheric clarity like the Mojave, the Sahara, and the Atacama desert [...]  Compositing the two images, Cohen creates a single new image full of resonance and nuance.  The work is both political and spiritual questioning not only what we are doing to the planet but drawing unexpected connections between disparate locations." 

Paris 48° 51’ 52’’ N 2021-07-14 utc 22:18

39 x 60 inch pigment print

Edition of 3

Paris 48° 51’ 03’’ N 2012-07-19 lst 19:46

26 x 40 inch pigment print

Edition of 5

Trying to reconstruct the past is fascinating. It's nearly impossible to imagine how the city you live in was before its topography and wildlife was altered. So many hills have been flattened, rivers rerouted, and forests logged.

The photos could also be described as a very artistic form of Augmented Reality, what I understand as technology that will allow us to view anything in front of us through a screen and learn about its history, uses, and more. Think of an app that would show you the world without lights so that you can always see the night sky wherever you are. Doesn't that blow your mind?!

What's super impressive about Cohen is that he manages to do that with "methodologies employed by early 19th century photographers like Gustave Le Grey" (at least according to Danzinger). Gustave Le Grey was also a Parisian photographer who was a central figure in French photography of the 1850s. At the age of forty, he fled the country to escape his creditors and sailed with Alexandre Dumas, author of The Count of Monte Cristo,  to "places famous in history and myth".

Solar Effect – Ocean, 1857, Gustave Le Gray, albumen print from a collodion-on-glass negative, 31.3 x 40.5 cm, Townshend Bequest, 1868. Museum no. 67.998

The Imperial Yacht La Reine Hortense, Le Havre, 1856, Gustave Le Gray, Albumen silver print from glass negative (2005.100.273)

Bateaux quittant le port du Havre, 1856 or 1857, Gustave Le Gray.

Palerme. 3. Palais Carini, 1860, Gustave Le Gray