Honorable Mention in the category « Documentary »

The atmosphere at the Paris train stations has changed significantly over time. Nowadays, the once great cathedrals of mobility resemble large shopping malls and at the railway stations Gare St. Lazare and Gare de Lyon you can even play a piano today …

Another difference: security requirements at the stations have been tightened – these days you can no longer enter a platform without a ticket. And in the metro stations, automatic doors prevent access to the tracks.

In the late 80’s, it was still possible to access the platform and take some snap shots of arriving and departing passengers. In this series I am showing unknown faces and portraits of passers-by who suddenly come to the forefront, only to disappear into anonymity of the crowd. It’s the way of things, that such pictures can no longer be made so easily today.

A few words regarding the technology used: I took most of the photos with a Nikon F2 SLR camera and a Minolta CLE viewfinder camera, equipped with Kodak T-Max films and standard lenses.