Unforeseen Studio - Clément Chapillon

La Traversée | It's an idea that came from SNCF, the french railway company that asked me to propose a personal vision of the C ligne Paris. RER Line C is the second most important railway network of Paris, it goes through 180 kilometers from point 0 of Notre Dame to a rural area like Dourdan, Etampes or Cergy Pontoise. Line C turns 40 years old this autumn.

For this occasion, SNCF (the state French railway company) asked me to explore its territory with a new look. I followed the rails to rediscover its surroundings and captured unexpected things along the line. RER is a part of the daily life of the inhabitants, it’s the agora, one of the only places where all people from ‘Le Grand Paris’ is crossing each other. It gives me the opportunity to rediscover and have a better understanding of the territory I always lived in.

During my railway wanderings, I captured the variety of the places deserved by the train, the faces of Line C people and workers, and the life inside and outside of this Line. The trains, its colors, its silhouette, are part of the « Ile de France » environment, from high density urban to forests, fields and small remote villages. At the end of the journey, a place that feels familiar shows another face and gives me a better idea of what this RER means for us. « We are the children of our landscapes » says the writer Lawrence Durrell and this Traversée shows us what the 550 000 children who take the RER Line C everyday look through the window of their trains. www.unforeseen.studio