Cycling Deserts Photographer Edouard Sepulchre Feels Like A God

Photographer Edouard Sepulchre chronicles the arid, unforgivable landscapes of North Africa and the Middle East in his photo series Dryland.

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.

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