March 29, 2020: The magnificent Rue de Rivoli next to the famous Jardin des Tuileries park in Paris.
You've probably never heard the song The Sound of Silence If you're a millennial, or maybe I'm wrong and you know this classic from Simon & Garfunkel from 1964 . If not, stop for a moment and search for it, play it in the background or listen to the song before reading this article (or after, as you like, but listen to it). Surely they did not know that years later a pandemic would hit the world and turn it upside down and all of us on the ropes. And that years later a publisher would use his lyrics to create a compilation of images of those cities in silence.
Because silence came to our cities like a paradox. Has it been the silence that has disturbed our peace? Shouldn't it be the noise that disturbs her? We are so used to living with noise that we do not realize that silence has been returned to us, almost as a gift (in some cases, of course).
“The world held its breath” in the spring of 2020, says the book's foreword Cities of Silence. Extraordinary views of a shutdown world (Ed. TeNeues), which collects the work of some photographers who had the opportunity to portray empty cities during the quarantine.**
The work immortalizes 60 cities in silence:** from Addis Ababa, passing through Amsterdam, Chicago, Dubai, Florence, Hong Kong, Lisbon, Mexico City or London.
Cities of Silence.
THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE THOSE CITIES FOR YOU
Surely many times when you have traveled to a very touristy city and you have been in front of a very crowded place you have thought that “ how I would like to have it all for myself ”. These photographers have been lucky enough to be able to enjoy from another perspective, and for themselves, the most beautiful and fascinating cities in the world.
“Cities as depicted in this book have never been seen this way before, and may never be again. Also, the absence of humans allows a new perspective in squares and public buildings ”, emphasizes the prologue.
In the book they call it haunting beauty . “This compilation of photos of the health crisis is a reminder of a special phase of human history, laced with the hope that, despite the beauty of the images, in our dismal present they will soon become what meant liberation. .** This volume inspires us to question the things we have always taken for granted.** Perhaps this spring 2020 introspection will bring us positive changes.”
For example, see how the Earth rested and nature recovered lost spaces . This break has allowed in northern India, thanks to the reduction of emissions, the inhabitants of the province of Punjab to see the peaks of the Himalayas for the first time in many years.
The book is available on the teNeues publishing house website from this September.
Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre, Paris.