Benjamin Le Brun had sent me his photo series The center of spare-time activities a while ago. That was at the height of the pandemic. Originally the series was intended as an homage to shopping mall culture and to illustrate “the transformation of shopping centres in France”.
To me, these pictures echo so many memories and emotions from a post-lockdown world—the isolation, the absurdity of empty shelves in wealthy Western democracies, and the surrealism of abandoned shopping malls and supermarkets.
Maybe unintended but in the best sense, Benjamin’s art managed to preserve the confused silence of 2020.
Witness for yourself in the photo gallery below.
