Night Journeys in Sète

Each year, the photo festival Image Singulières invites a photographer to the French town of Sète to make a series of photographs. During my time there, I became curious about what was happening behind closed doors.

by Bieke Depoorter

July 7, 2015, 10:00am

This article appears in the Photo Issue 2015.

Photos by Bieke Depoorter/Magnum Photos

Each year, the photo festival Image Singulières invites a photographer to the little southern French town of Sète to make a series of photographs. During my time there, I wandered around and, attracted by the atmosphere of the night, became curious about what was happening behind closed doors. Some kind people opened them, and a nocturnal vision of the city was presented to me. The surroundings had a cinematic, dreamlike atmosphere, and each visual poem in the series conveys the muted pulsations of a sleeping city. In the shelter of darkness and silence, these are real people, balancing on the thin line between fiction and reality.