Margery Clay
A building, which is objectively the remains or evidence of individual and collective history, transforms itself into something more, the trace of a lived experience which allows the viewer to unfold meaning These buildings constitute the main architectural fabric of European cities. They disappear into the city in indistinquishable shades of gray, forming a unique world of secrets. Each building is a microcosm, a joy and tragedy of coexistance where identical movements are duplicated. Beyond the windows, I imagine past lives. I find myself drawn to photographing the remains of the ordinary. Commonplace structures neither noteworthy nor original. Buildings that serve simply as home or shelter, their value being only in the sentimental or nostalgic realm of memory, remains of past experience. With these buildings which are mine for a short time, I try to convey a monumentality of form, strong and stoic, buildings which transmit a certain grace, a fragile spirituality, wedding form and content, evidence and experience.