mental metal

My name is Léa. I was born and raised in France, and moved to Berlin in 2019. Since then, there was a lot of changes in my life: multiple jobs, deaths of dear ones, unemployment, travels, depression, lovers, therapy, etc.

When I look back, one thing has stayed constant: my obsession with photographing construction sites. No matter how shaky my life was, no matter how uncertain my future seemed or how much I missed people, there were always construction sites around. They offered angles and colors to explore, fun elements to notice, new shapes and materials to discover.

It all began during my 2015 trip to Tehran, where I fell in love with cranes and construction scenes. I started seeing beauty in what most people find ugly. I even find these giant metal bars and concrete blocks surprisingly erotic.

On the flip side, it’s painful to see the earth being exploited, much like women’s bodies have always been. In Berlin, this rapid development reflects the city’s recent changes, gentrification, and the crazy rise in rents.

For me, these photos are deeply personal. They have been with me through everything. I remember each shot – when I took it, who I was with, my mental state at the time. I guess what resonates the most to me is that I see myself in them: unfinished, in progress, building new layers on old foundations.

Now, I feel the need to bring all these images together, pairing them with sound collages I have created or texts I have written during various moments in my life. This project is an attempt to make sense of seemingly unrelated experiences.

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