On the day he took this image, French photographer Michel Kharoubi was on his way to visit his father in a medical retirement home. This was shot in Les Olympiades, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, but Kharoubi notes that the specific location is not important to him.
“I don’t practise realistic or documentary street photography, but try to capture iconic urban images,” he says. “I positioned myself against a wall and waited for the right characters to pass by.”
Kharoubi adds that the photograph feels to him like an urban opera. “The city is a set, and passersby are both protagonists and extras,” he says. “The composition is essential, because it is this fragment of reality that will be the basis of the photo. Then, in post-production, I choose what I highlight and dramatise, like a director.”
While Kharoubi believes that a photograph must attract the eye, perhaps even intrigue or reveal something about the world, he insists that the device used to take it is secondary. “Whether it’s a smartphone or otherwise, this is only a tool in the process. The important thing is our view of the world and the story we tell.”
