Laurent Baillet

So I came across this artist, and while I wasn't able to find a whole lot of information about him what he had to write about his series Mass Culture resonated with me and seemed relatable to the things I've been thinking about.

Laurent Baillet only somewhat recently started making personal work, up until 2012 he was working as a commercial photographer, but since then he has been focusing on his "artist approach." He traveled around the world to all the mega cities in Asia making these really strange photographs of masses of people.



On his website  this is what he writes as his approach to making these photographs:

"What is the space left to the individuals in our societies? Are modern cities the result of a standardized, international culture of star architects, planners and marketers? The design of buildings, products and services offered seem to be excessively standardized - resulting in cities where the individual gets swallowed up by the crowd. What about places of worship, touristic places and entairtenment? This series is a comment on space, both physical and mental. It is an invitation to reflect on what we call progress and modern life."

I find myself most interested in his idea of losing individuality to standardization, as well as questioning what we define as progress and modern life.