Photographer Laurent Kronental takes PORT through his latest photography project, inspired by the buildings and inhabitants of Paris’ forgotten housing estates

The Grand Ensembles of Paris are a series of housing estates built in the suburbs of the French capital between the 1960s and 1980s. Their spectacular modern and post-modern architecture speaks of a mid-century optimism – a utopian vision of social housing that could create opportunity and employment for its citizens. Yet, despite their monumental size, the Ensembles have been largely forgotten, lost in the penumbra of the city and left to decline into deprivation and dereliction.

Having discovered the series of buildings four years ago, French photographer Laurent Kronental was inspired to begin Souvenir d’un Futur, a still-ongoing photographic investigation into these unique environments. Shot with 4×5 camera,a format traditionally favoured by architectural photographers, Kronental has also turned his lens to the older inhabitants of the estates, typically between 80 and 95 years old. The result is a poetic juxtaposition of the grand utopian buildings and their aged residents, unable to leave as the estates crumble around them.

Ahead of an exhibition of his work at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, PORT spoke to Kronental about the pensioners’ stories, the history of the Ensembles and the influences behind the project.

How did you first discover the Grands Ensembles and what attracted you to them?

Initially I was influenced by my experience in China, where I lived for six months in 2008 and took up photography. I was stunned by the tentacular immoderation of these gigantic cities