Grégoire Pujade-Lauraine, Sojourn, from PRIVATE 49 – FRANCE présences
[R]ooted in the experience of the ubiquitous metropolis, the series Sojourn is much more than an account of a single urban territory. Instead, weaving elements of various western cities, it creates a dream-like visual tale centered around atmospheric objects, places and characters, the City being only a metaphorical surrounding.The basic material for this series is the mystery and potent evocation found in the ordinary and the discarded.
Unused objects, void premises, dead-ends, people seemingly engaged in a journey but lost in their inner selves, form the emotional background to this silent wandering.
Strolling around anonymous hazy places, the bizarre encounters act like a series of cryptic oracles: a moonlit log, crumbling void posters on a wall, a broken clock. Restlessness and waiting, solitude and alienation paradoxically heighten the perception of our surroundings, of the transience of their presence.
This sojourn thus refers as much to the photographer as to the gaze of the viewer, constantly longing to engage in a new path of contemplation.
(From PRIVATE 49 – FRANCE présences, p. 36 - 39)