Métro
by Rainer Neumann
When I started Street photography a few years ago, it was obvious: that kind of photography had to be outdoor, in the streets.
Last autumn I discovered Bruce Davidson, with his marvelous series „Subway“ and I thought: wouldn’t it be possible to experience other backgrounds, other details other angles than I usually do by exploring the subway?
The other good part of it would be: wandering the streets in winter in Europe can be very cold and uncomfortable.
I planned a trip to the closest city with an interesting Subway System which is Paris in my opinion, a 3 hours train ride from Ludwigshafen where I live.
I love the Métro in Paris: the first line started service at 19. July 1900.
The system has a total length of 219,9 km and more than 4 million people are using it every day. The historic train stations are architectural works of art.
Unfortunately in December French SNCF employees decided to be on strike. That did not only include the TGV trains I booked to reach Paris, but also almost every Métro Line in Paris. Only Line 1 and 14 were operating, of course not close to my hotel.
Entering Line #1 near Hotel de Ville was almost impossible, because it was so incredibly crowded, that even with a wide angle lens it wasn’t possible to create a decent framed pic.
After some attempts, I saw that I had better chances at Sunday and going to the very end of the line, when the trains were not so crowded.
Here is what I saw……
My name is Rainer Neumann. I am married and live in Ludwigshafen / Germany. I was born 1960 in Rastatt / Germany.
Went to school there until 1979. In 1979 I started my studies of „Tonmeister“ at the „Hochschule der Künste“ (today University of Music) in Berlin with the final exams in 1986.
Since 1986 I am working as a Sound Engineer for the Südwestrundfunk (German Public Broadcast station) doing recordings of classical orchestral music.
I came to photography in my early twenties but did never more than the usual holiday shootings. In 2016 Street Photography crossed my life and I fell in love with that genre of art.