Architectural Design: Series Of Babels By Jean-François Rauzier

Paris-based photographer Jean-Francois Rauzier began his career as a fashion photographer and now the french artist explores our perceptions of the world, surveying themes like progress, oppression, ecology, utopia, and liberty in beautiful works. This time, it’s all about an amazing architectural design. Enriched by his work in commercial photography, and as a pioneer of the numerical collection, Rauzier was one of the first to create “hyperphotos”. The technique called ‘hyper-photography’ allows him to combine both infinitely big and small scale imagery in one piece.

That’s the origin of the series Babels. Through his series of Babels, Jean-François Rauzier invites viewers into an imagined architectural universe brimming with cultural references and motifs. The Babel series are about time, the marks of the everyday life on the architecture. There is something fun in the way he stacks the building, it’s a construction game where the purpose is more to concentrate a city, its atmosphere in one image, one building.

There are two aspects of series: some compositions — particularly babel 2, 11, and 24 — depict an architectural style that describes the distinct culture and community of a place. These artworks simultaneously relay thoughts about human presence and absence. Using the hyper-photographic technique, Rauzier creates an entirely new architecture, often cold and repetitive, but whose details create a sense of privacy and intimacy.

In other babels — namely numbers 15, 16 and 17 — there is an undeniable sense of whimsy, where the purpose is to concentrate a city and its atmosphere in one single construction. Babel Miami is a tribute to the city’s outdated modernity and to its fresh fantasy.