Cycling Deserts, Photographer Edouard Sepulchre Feels ‘Like a God’

Edouard Sepulchre’s fascination with deserts and arid landscapes is realised in Dryland, a two-year project in which the Parisian photographer cycled through the Maghreb and the Middle East. He captured a yellow-brown expanse where traces of human intervention – signage, dwellings – appear almost abstract. His obsession with the American West, the genesis of Dryland, is apparent in shots of low-slung vernacular architecture that can at a distance resemble roadside diners or petrol stations. Other images are more oblique: archways span roads while offering the outsider little clue as to their purpose. “The desert can give us the impression of being like a god,” says Sepulchre. “Its silence and emptiness give way to a projection of space; we can create any world we want.”

This story appears in Issue 4 of Culture Trip magazine: Art in the City.