The Life of Others

I took this photo a good while back. I was arriving in Paris by train, and a commuter train overtook us (for some reason I was allegedly in the fast one). I took a photo after I was struck by the visuals and the story I could see in the first few cars. I woke up from my contemplation just in time to capture one of the last ones. What interested me from the visual point of view is the reminder of Edward Hopper’s colours and compositions. Windows into people’s lives, fairly toned down colours. The feeling of being an outsider looking in on people’s lives. The lack of explanation. At the same time random, but not. From the story point of view, it’s the loneliness of these people that attracted me (again, Edward Hopper hides in the shadows). Despite the fact that these people were on a commuter train in the largest city in the country, they each appear in a window on their own. It felt like they were in different flats of an apartment block. Only the two men on the right appeared engaged…