Clément Guillaume

Architectural photographer, habitat, urbanism, landscape, based in Paris.

In search of remarkable forgotten architecture, Clément Guillaume photographed the ski jump built for the 1968 Winter Olympics held in the Grenoble region, as well as the judges' tower.

An exemplary monument of Brutalist architecture, the large Olympic ski jump was designed by architect and urban planner Pierre Dalloz, a former member of the French Resistance, mountaineer, writer, and student of Auguste Perret, assisted by Heini Klopfer. His choice of concrete, and particularly the use of a reinforced concrete veil, was motivated by the structure's visibility during the Games: the architect wished to remind the world of France's major role in the invention and evolution of the reinforced concrete technique.

These pictures by Clément Guillaume echoe what the architect said in an interview in 1982: "If this ski jump were to be abandoned one day, the best thing would be to recreate the fir grove around it, so that it would appear in the forest like a ghost."

An architecture enthusiast, Clément Guillaume is particularly interested in the different forms of life that can emerge from a place, the organicity that may not have been foreseen at the outset, or, on the contrary, the power with which man manages to tame his territory. The eternal battle of the natural vs. the cultural, sometimes resolved by harmony, other times by the dissonance of the bodies involved - it's up to the viewer to decide.

"I capture images all the time. Housing projects, regional architecture, landscapes, ruins and camping grounds, they all tell stories that touch me. I like to trigger interest in what seems ugly or mundane, to produce images that incite reflection, allowing us to understand the world and its complexity." Clément Guillaume.