In this series, Jean-Pierre Couderc represented thoroughfares, bridges and stairways characteristic of the Parisian metro and in particular its elevated stations. The latter were installed between 1902 and 1909, taking the form of viaducts built above the roadway or across the Seine. These metal structures, made in the spirit of the works of Gustave Eiffel, are showcased here through an elegant interplay of light and shade, reinforced by the use of black and white photography. Heavy contrasts contribute to defining the volumes and geometry of this architecture that has since been integrated into the cityscape, becoming a feature of it. While this series bears witness to Couderc’s great technical mastery, it also reveals the artist’s attraction to the juxtapositions of ordinary and exceptional aspects that make up the lesser and greater history of Paris.

**The artist: Jean-Pierre Couderc**

Both photographer and journalist, Jean-Pierre Couderc covered French political, artistic, literary, and sports news for the magazine L’Express. From 1970 to 2003, he thus produced many portraits of the personalities who marked the history of the second half of the 20th century. Several thousands of photographs are now conserved by the Roger-Viollet Agency, including some that were captured with a handheld camera in the streets of Paris, as he documented the city, its daily life and architecture. A reporter who favours long-term assignments, while Jean-Pierre Couderc has for instance photographed behind the scenes of the Louvre Museum for a month, one of his most significant projects was following the evolution of the suburb of La Défense for fifteen years, and devoting a captivating series of photographs to the capital’s aerial transit system in 1980.