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The project Piercing Time - Un Percement du Temps - examines urban change and the documentary role of photography through juxtaposing contemporary rephotographs by Peter Sramek with 19th century images of Paris taken by Charles Marville under Georges Haussmann along with corresponding photographs by Eugène Atget from the early 20th century. For this project, Sramek has examined the Musée Carnavalet’s collection of Charles Marville’s topographic photographs of Paris taken between 1865 and 1877. |
| The book, Piercing Time, to be released in English in October, 2013 by Intellect Press (UK) and distributed by the University of Chicago Press, will discuss the study of photographic representation of urban history from a number of angles along with presenting over 400 images. A funding campaign wil raise monies towards the printing and production costs of the book. |
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| The collection of images juxtaposes Marville’s photographs with those made over the past 4 years by the author in his process of locating and revisiting 184 views with a large format camera. The selection of images was made through archival research in the Musée Carnavalet and roughly follows a diagonal line through Paris as a topographical metaphor of the linear avenue, archaeological slice, a ‘percement des boulevards’. Images by Eugène Atget of the same sites add a temporal and methodological layer to the discussion. |
| Analytically, the book will allow for an examination of how the representation of urban space reflects attitudes towards the city, urban development and photography as a documentary medium. This will be accomplished through analytical commentary written by the author, essays by 2 art historians and edited commentaries on recent urban changes by local Parisians taken from audio interviews conducted by the author. |
| Shalini LeGall, of NYU Paris, writes on the politics and meaning of demolitions in Haussmann’s Paris while Min K Lee, of Swarthmore College, discusses the visual representation of urban change in the 19th century and the mapping of Haussmann’s Paris. |
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