Villes Ééteintes presented by Boogie Woogie Photography.
Thierry Cohen captured the audience’s wonder with a series of darkened night pictures in different cities. They are contained in his album, Villes Ééteintes. “Paris 48° 51′ 41″ N 2019-04-27 LST 14:43” is one of the photos in this album. You can view it here. It is the second picture. It portrays the Louvre without a crowd and presents it against a starlit background.
The artwork has a harmonious composition. Thierry Cohen captured an almost symmetrical view of the museum from afar, leaving a visually spacious area contrasting the expansive sky. To avoid a sense of emptiness elicited by the vast space, he chose a starry night full of details to complement the Louvre. The enchanting night view has enhanced the museum and made the image lively.
The artist has mastered photographic composition techniques and photo editing techniques. He captured images of the historical monument and the star clusters in the Sahara Desert. Rather than presenting separate photos, he digitally merged the two images. It no longer depicts a typical afternoon at the museum or a constellation in the desert sky; instead, they have been merged into a single entity. The way the lights adorned the Louvre Museum creates an illusion that the stars were shining on the architecture, giving a clear view of it.
The contrastive coloring of the stars and the main body of the image gives vividness to the image. The dark tone is central to its composition, but without a twist, it can be dull. To counter the monochrome, Thierry introduced brightness to the sky. Suddenly, it becomes visually arresting. There is a compelling reason to hold our gaze and resist looking away.
This also highlights the theme of the artwork. Through photos like this in Thierry Cohen’s album, he aimed to demonstrate how light pollution robs our cities of beautiful starry nights. It is thought-provoking. I wondered how the historical building would look on a star-filled night like this.
It is remarkable that Thierry seamlessly combined two images to present his imagination of the Louvre at night without light pollution. The intricate work brings out the magnificence of the museum and the effect of Nature to illuminate our civilization. It is not only a beautiful artwork but also an inspiring piece.
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