By Patrick La Roque
It was a return of sorts. To the city, on a more extensive shoot than anything I’d attempted in the past 18 months or so. But also a return to the 35 mm field of view, after mostly favouring 50 mm since the release of the X-Pro2, eons ago.
I wanted crowds, but found very few. I wanted the theatrical immersion I remembered, bodies moving in mock symmetry around me, like starlings, unaware of the sketches they paint. Instead, I saw lone figures, immobile or barely disruptive. Sculptures, stilled against a brutalist backdrop.
There is beauty in a city gone quiet—I can’t argue that. Life feels suspended, moments pulled away from the timeline, broken into separate objects, floating. And the truth is, I could easily get used to this; but it might not be healthy.
A social animal requires a society.
A stage needs performers.
