Metropolitics

France's Housing Projects Recounted Through Postcards

Florine Ballif & translated by Oliver Waine — 2026-04-21T05:00:00Z

The selection of postcards presented by Renaud Epstein in his book On est bien arrivés (“We've arrived safely”) invites us to look at France's large postwar social housing projects and their inhabitants from a different, more sensitive perspective, far removed from the usual stereotypes.
This original book sheds light on a forgotten—even ignored—object: postcards showcasing France's postwar social housing projects, or “grands ensembles”. In this book, political scientist Renaud Epstein

- Reviews / architecture, banlieue, grands ensembles, heritage, urban heritage, public housing, suburbs, social housing, urban planning, urbanism, photography, memory

The Paris of Yesteryear: A Photographic Inventory

Pauline Rossi & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-05-14T05:00:00Z

The Commission du Vieux Paris has kept meticulous records of urban transformations, with its own perception of what constitutes heritage. Since 2022, some 11,000 geolocated photographs from its collection have been made available online, enabling a virtual historic visit of urban renewal projects.
In Paris, a municipal committee called the Commission du Vieux Paris (Old Paris Commission) was created in 1897 to advise the prefecture (covering the former Seine département), and later the city

- From the Field / Paris, history, photography, heritage, urban history, urban heritage

Photographing Prison

2020-10-02T05:00:00Z

The photographs presented here were taken by Andrea Eichenberger at the former men's and women's prison in Beauvais, in northern France, during its final year of operation and after its closure. Located in the heart of the city, the prison was originally run by the local bishopric under the Ancien Régime. It was briefly transformed into a hospital between 1813 and 1819, before becoming a prison départementale (county prison) in 1858. It closed in 2015, replaced by a new prison on the outskirts

- From the Field / prison, incarceration, France, Hauts-de-France, Northern France, Beauvais, image, photography, inmates, carceral space, experience of imprisonment, prison administration

Photography, Ethnography and Exhibitions in the Projects

Camilo León-Quijano & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-01-11T20:56:26Z

Pictures taken by photographer and sociologist Camilo León-Quijano with the initial aim of understanding the sporting experience of a female rugby team in a Paris suburb led to a broader project and exhibition called The Rugbywomen. In light of this, we consider the heuristic advantages of photographic practices for ethnographic research.
How can photography be used to study the social world, and in particular the experiences of residents of a suburban town? This is the question that led me

- From the Field / banlieue, suburbs, Sarcelles, Paris region, Île-de-France, sport, photography

Beneath the Surface of Chinese Cities: Abandoned Places and Contemporary Ruins

Judith Audin & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-09-28T05:00:00Z

Urban ruins represent a marginal subject of research within the field of Chinese studies, and yet are a precious reminder of the country's rapid urban development. By approaching these abandoned spaces through urban exploration, Judith Audin makes an original contribution to the analysis of the Chinese city.
Demolition, a violent but banal process in the Chinese urban landscape of the last 40 years, has produced the most common form of contemporary ruins in China (Meyer 2008). These

- From the Field / China, demolition, ethnography, photography, medium-sized cities, ruin porn, Shanghai, urban exploration, abandoned places, ruins, Asia, Beijing

Photographing the Slums of 1900s Berlin

Danièle Voldman & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-09-14T05:00:00Z

At the turn of the 20th century, the dramatically poor conditions of urban working-class housing was a cause of major concern in many cities, and would lead to the first social-housing experiments. Photography, then a booming new technology, was one of the means used to document this problem and raise awareness of conditions, as this book on working-class housing in Berlin illustrates.
Taking as their starting point a collection of photographs taken during the first 20 years of the 20th

- Reviews / housing, urban history, social housing, slum, Berlin, Germany, history, affordable housing, photography, working classes, blue-collar workers, manual workers, workers

“Enfantillages”: photographing children (and their parents) in public space

Fabien Desage & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-03-04T06:00:00Z

Why are children photogenic? Political sociologist Fabien Desage reflects upon his practices as a photographer and the reasons that make children in public spaces a particularly interesting and stimulating subject of visual investigation.
---- Series: Children in the City ENFANTILLAGE, n.m. Informal A. The state of being (like) a child. 1. Rare. Physical aspect that is characteristic of a child. 2. [Gen., pertaining to an adult] Lack of maturity; a tendency to act without thinking. (Near-)

- From the Field / public space, children, public order, photography, order in public, parents, street, authority, photogenicity, upbringing

Another Vision of the Suburbs

Jean-Christophe Bardot & Laurent Devisme & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-05-07T04:55:00Z

Images of the urban fringes of French cities often tend either to condemn their ugliness or to revel in a strange fascination for these geometric spaces. Here, Laurent Devisme comments upon Jean-Christophe Bardot's photographs, and shows how they give a visible form to the imagined perceptions of these urban spaces.
It is often said that the French suburbs – the banlieues – get a bad press; what is more rarely pointed out is that urban spaces in general are often portrayed in a poor light,

- Essays / periurban, suburbs, image, photography, Le Bar Floréal, banlieue

The world of the blue-collar worker: changed, but not gone

2014-02-19T05:50:00Z

Despite deindustrialisation and increasingly acute economic difficulties in the former strongholds of heavy industry, manual workers remain a key group in French society. The photographs and text presented here describe the ways in which their work has changed, together with the reconfigurations both of manual workers as a group and the regions in which they live and work – and how these transformations have weakened them politically.
Manual workers played a central role in shaping and

- From the Field / inequalities, deindustrialization, work, crisis, photography, Le Bar Floréal, working classes, industry, blue-collar workers, manual workers, workers, mobilization

Migrant Destinies

Sylvaine Bulle & Laetitia Tura & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-01-15T05:50:00Z

Although borders are often invisible, they govern people's right to move freely, as well as clandestine migration strategies. Here, Sylvaine Bulle comments on photographs by Laetitia Tura and, in doing so, examines the complex interactions – between law, economics and violence – that sharing territories implies.
The United States, Mexico, Latin America, Africa... are they any spaces, territories or citizens capable of resisting the action of governments who organise “the distribution of

- Essays / immigration, state, migration, borders, photography, Le Bar Floréal, migrants