Metropolisson – Janol Apin

« Rue du bac », « Alexandre Dumas », « Argentine », « Champ de Mars » or even « Assemblée Nationale »: you might recognise some of these names, but do you know what connects them? If you spend a few days in the French capital, you’ll probably see them all. You guessed it, they are all names of Paris metro stations!

It would be hard to imagine a more impersonal place than the Parisian metro, and yet an artist has succeeded in making it entirely his own thanks to a rather special project. Janol Apin, a Parisian photographer who used to be a lab technician, took a series of photos in the 90s called ‘Métropolisson’ that depicted each of the 120 metro stations. By having one or two people posing in humorous situations, he managed to bring the stations to life, so much so that you would think the stations had been named to coincide with the photographs, and not the other way round.

Thanks to him, we can now admire Obelix delivering a menhir to Alésia station, the three musketeers crossing swords at the stop Alexandre Dumas or even an astronaut alighting at Champ de Mars! A superb series of puns and charades that will make you see the metro in a new light. But as a picture is worth a thousand words, why not have a look for yourself: www.janol-apin.com