My zine is about the people, buildings, and history of St. Malo. I noticed after editing this images how the people were behaving, exploring together and learning about the history of the town as we were, peeking into small rooms inside the towers placed around the castle walls, looking over the wall at the vast ocean in front of them, fascinated by the views and exploring the maze of cobbled streets around them. I wanted to present the people as they were, going about their daily lives in the street, sat in a park with their dogs and children. As my inspiration for this trip was Cartier-Bresson’s street photography, I didn’t want to interrupt a single moment by stopping someone to ask for their photo or standing in the middle of the road; I wanted to blend in and catch people in a moment that portrays them naturally and uniquely. One of the subjects from my photographs that I’ve become primarily interested in was the man sat on the side of the street with his dog, a man I assume to be homeless. I feel that those images perfectly represent selfless behaviours that people often have whilst struggling for money or food – something that I relate to on a deeply personal level – these people don’t believe, or want to believe, that they’re suffering enough to not help another person or animal, especially one that they love and care for, much like the dog. I’ve noticed quite a lot that with homeless people or people on lower or no incomes that they truly give their all to support and provide for their loved ones over themselves, like how a parent should for their children, and it’s something that really strikes me when I see it.
I also focus on the architecture, both new and old, in the town, as I find the older-fashioned buildings to be something that seems quite reliable, created from stronger, longer-lasting materials that outlives the cheap, mass-produced materials often used in construction today. I captured images of the structures that really took my interest, such as the hotel in one of the photos I plan to use. I felt attracted to the building’s personality, it was something that felt quite homely to me as a welcoming place to stay that had stood the test of time, playing a small part in the lives of every guest that entered, providing them with a place to stay, eat, and recover from their day of travelling and exploration. Among my other images I found myself engrossed in the strong, geometric architecture created from thick stone bricks, encasing St. Malo and protecting it from the outside world. I’ve researched the town and learned about some of it’s history as practically a home base for privateers, government-sanctioned pirates that were permitted to plunder from foreign governments and ships they found on the seas, before sailing back to their safe haven, the small port town. The way the buildings are placed creates a sense of this, that it was a hideout for a lot of criminal activity, with cramped alleyways and large clumps of houses stuck together on every street. St. Malo was known for its incredible defense against attackers with its thick walls and battlements at various vantage points around the walls, which is a key reason for its destruction in WWII, when planes were commonly in use, and an easy bypass over the looming walls to bomb the town, taking a powerful stronghold from the French and allied troops.
I plan to create this narrative by starting with the architecture for a 400~ word segment before moving onto a two separate segments about tourists and the relationships between people and their loved ones.
