THE UNAVOIDABLE SUNSET (1999…)

There is an Arab saying, referring to the Pyramids of Giza, which states as follows: “Man fears time, but time fears the Pyramids.” Well, like many sayings, it holds no real credibility. Scientifically, it is entirely false; in the long run, time and the physical and chemical convulsions of the universe will bring an end to the entire planet and everything it contains.

Scientists have already announced it: there will come a moment when this planet will vanish without any possibility of continuity. Absolutely everything on Earth will come to an end. All things gradually shift toward decrepitude and, consequently, toward final destruction, whether they are robust constructions, great wonders of nature, people, animals, plants, or any form of life, or even any inert material entity that exists on this planet we inhabit. Even minerals of Herculean hardness will eventually burst apart, becoming millions of scattered atoms. This change of state is something we cannot escape; inevitably, the course of life leads us, on a small scale, to death, and on a large scale, to the most absolute disappearance.

To give just a couple of examples: six of the seven wonders of the ancient world have already disappeared, and not a single drop of water remains in the Aral Sea. Only in memory, human or physical, through documentation, do some of these extraordinary marvels created by nature or by human hands endure.

I wanted to illustrate this reality by photographing ruins that remind us that the passing of time is unavoidable for all, and that everything around us will eventually vanish, transformed into atoms.

MEASUREMENTS: 40 X 40 cm

NUMBER OF IMAGES: 17 (en progrès)

40 x 40 copies on paper50 x 60

Hahnemühlemat paper. Giclée copy