Enfilade de crayères, d'origine gallo-romaine 1930 - 1960

This is a photo of an Enfilade de crayères, d'origine gallo-romaine by Helio-Cachan. The tones here are limited, almost monochromatic and this in itself, like a painting, becomes part of the story. It's a photograph of the interior of a cellar, probably used for storing wine. Look at the texture of the walls. It’s almost like the brushstrokes in a painting, layered and uneven. There's a kind of softness and graininess in the image. The physical grain of the film stock is very apparent, giving the image a tactile quality, like you could run your hand over it. And then there are the stacked bottles, rows and rows of them, creating a kind of rhythmic pattern. The lack of clarity gives the image a dreamlike quality, like a memory fading at the edges. This reminds me a lot of Bernd and Hilla Becher, who photographed industrial structures. But where the Bechers were trying to be objective, here there is a real sense of atmosphere. It's not just a record, it's a mood.