Sleeping Beauties
By Vincent Bitaud
12 August 2008
Airports are some of the most secured public areas in the world. Dedicated to transit during the day, they turn into huge empty warehouses at night, where people waiting for their connection or early flights, and unable to afford a hotel room, try to find some sleep.
Train stations are located downtown, and therefore there are always some remnants of nightly activities inside or around them. Being disconnected from the city, airports are on the other hand a world apart where silence and absence of motion preside.
Through this work, I am trying to convey the eerie feeling that was always my silent partner during those many hours I spent wandering in airports. Every single night, a place dedicated to welcome thousands of people in motion turn into its exact opposite, and was never designed to be seen or even used like this. A perfect anomaly.
Light remains the principal character in this project. Clinical and blinding, oppressive for some and soothing for others, it leaves no place for concealment, and projects the visitor into an overwhelming sense of vacuity and absence. Artificial lights drawing the sleeping out of the shadowy enclaves they are used to; energy wastage subjugated to the security obsession : it is here that two fundamental contemporary preoccupations of our time collide head on.
**IMPORTANT NOTE** (not to be published)
Those pictures were taken and thought as diptychs (001A goes next to 001B etc...). I uploaded them as single frames as JPG mag's website doesnt allow zooms for full views.
15 responses
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Martin Brown said (9 November 2008):
This is fabulous. Smple yet stunning compositions give the airport that clean feel. I'm a big fan of artificial light myself, especially when it is treated in an appropriate way as you have done in these images. Thank you for sharing!
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Hector Ortiz gave props (17 December 2008):
awesome ...
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Muhammad IQbal said (22 December 2008):
great...wonderfull...
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Christopher Long gave props (23 December 2008):
Fantastic series!
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nema' etebar said (16 January 2009):
love it..
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Tosin Pedro gave props (17 January 2009):
Very neat shots!
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Nicholas gave props (21 January 2009):
I'd really like to know how you did this!
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Alexandru Valentin Iedu gave props (7 February 2009):
EXCELLENT SERIES !!! FINE WORK
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David Kreisman gave props (18 February 2009):
I just love how you've used the wide open spaces of an airport lounge and the color (or lack there of). Curious what technique(s) you used to get that look.
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visithra manikam said (5 March 2009):
stunning
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Memrie King gave props (13 March 2009):
Right on, and ditto to the artist statement.
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Brian Haferkamp added a link (19 April 2009):
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patrick john o'doherty said (23 April 2009):
nice words Vincent
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Maayan Ziv said (16 May 2009):
clean cut, elegant, simple, and beautiful.
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Daniel Horacio Agostini said (7 June 2009):
amazing work....extraordinary representation...great!
