Poetic Images Reveal a Complex Problem
The Flying Houses is a series by French photographer Laurent Chéhère, inspired by Menilmontant – a poor and cosmopolitan neighborhood of Paris where he lives. The images poetically and subtly tell the story of a "contemporary reality by revealing concerns of a class impoverished by society". Laurent isolates these buildings of their urban context, releasing them to the sky, to tell the stories, dreams and the hopes of these inhabitants. The images are photomontages of hundreds of elements he captures to assemble them afterward like a puzzle. At first glance, they appear light-hearted and dreamy, upon closer inspection, details reveal a more complex story.