I wanted to make a deliberate break from traditional humanist photography, which seeks to capture the soul of a Paris that, to me, no longer exists—or at the very least, has transformed beyond recognition.

There is a nostalgic urge to preserve an idealized image of Paris—a city of cobblestone alleys, smoky bistros, and bustling markets teeming with picturesque characters.

To sustain this illusion, one would have to erase the cars, crop out the barriers meant to keep them off the sidewalks, and remove everything that mars the capital yet has become an unavoidable necessity.

Expecting today’s photography to recreate these scenes is a form of deception—a veil that obscures the vision of a Paris in perpetual evolution.

I do not seek to resurrect a Paris that is no more, but neither can I imagine Paris without Montmartre, Sacré-Cœur, the Latin Quarter, Notre-Dame, the Luxembourg Gardens, the Marais, and Bastille.

You will find iconic landmarks and crowded avenues, bleak spaces and tranquil gardens. But you will not find the Champs- Élysées—it has become a place devoid of soul.

I must have captured thousands of images of Paris—how to choose just a handful for this selection? I laid down my markers, embraced a studied disorder, a controlled anarchy.