Ferry Tale, the photographic series by Arnaud Montagard

6 years ago

Born in 1991, Arnaud Montagard is a French photographer, originally from Nancy, who chose Brooklyn as his home and the world as the place to work.

Arnaud Montagard’s lens seems to be fascinated by simple things, ordinary and almost forgotten places, far from the chaos and frenzy of the city. Among his works, in which he often captures an aspect of America far from the common imagination, the one that struck us the most brought Arnaud to Japan.

Here, tourists are usually attracted by the thousands of neon signs and lights, skyscrapers and typical restaurants and technological innovations, while Arnaud Montagard seems to have gone in search of something to remind him of New York.

Thus was born the photographic series Ferry Tale, entirely made on ferries, which still today represent the best way to move from one island to another of the Japanese archipelago.

Although the shots were taken in 2018, the atmosphere immediately brings us to forty or fifty years ago: the interiors of the ferries haven’t changed and their neutral colors with leather seats give the images a vintage style that is emphasized by the natural light that changes day by day, hour by hour and enters through the large windows.

With Ferry Tale, Arnaud Montagard brings attention back to the journey, to the wait to arrive in a place, to those moments of transition that everyone experiences every day going to work or coming home and to which we never pay enough attention. Apparently dead moments that hide a forgotten beauty that we rediscover with immense amazement in Arnaud’s photographs.