The Paris Ring Road: Photographic Perspectives and Local Uses

Lecture by Raphaële BERTHO, photography historian and senior lecturer at the University of Tours, at the Laboratory for Artistic and Cultural Interactions, Transfers and Ruptures (InTRu), and Nathalie ROSEAU, architect and urban planner, and professor at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées, at the Laboratory for Techniques, Territories and Societies (LATTS).

This presentation is part of the seminar ‘The Paris Region: Territories and Cultures’, organised by Emmanuel Bellanger (CHS, CNRS/University of Paris 1), Paul Bastier (National Archives), Béatrice Hérold, Dominique Juigné and Anne-Cécile Tizon-Germe (Paris Archives), Christine Langé and Caroline Andreani (Seine-Saint-Denis Departmental Archives), Rosine Lheureux (Val-de-Marne Departmental Archives) and Sylvie Zaidman (Paris Musées). The 2025–2026 seminar series is devoted to “Senses and Feelings in the Paris Region, 18th–21st Centuries”.

Raphaële Bertho and Nathalie Roseau have chosen to focus on the Paris Ring Road by undertaking a photo-historical study based on the premise that photography can help to reveal the vernacular uses that have shaped this political landscape over the last century. The presentation will focus in particular on the Porte de Bagnolet, a site that undoubtedly embodies the way in which the development of the belt’s territory has affected, or even caused the disappearance of, previous vernacular practices.