I Traveled Through The United States In Search Of The Most Beautiful Abandoned Pianos (11 Pics)

I started studying piano at a very early age and continued for many years. At the same time I learned from my mother, a photographer, to use photographic techniques from a very young age. My level did not allow me to become a concert pianist, so I naturally decided to progress in the field of photography, while continuing the piano in a personal way.

In 2008, it was an unforgettable encounter. Indeed, on the heights of a French city, I discovered an abandoned mansion. Inside, everything was empty but there was only a baby grand piano. I could not believe my eyes. The fireplace had been broken. The valuables and noble materials had already disappeared. Only this piano remained. This discovery gave me the idea to create an art project about abandoned pianos in the world. This quest led me to visit a large part of Europe and the United States. I have now discovered more than a hundred forgotten pianos around the world.

I think my work has been evolving ever since I first discovered an abandoned piano. What is most important to me is to capture the power of these forgotten instruments. To show that even covered with dust, the piano still retains its nobility.

I stay hours or even days on the spot in order to capture a light, the one that for me, will highlight the entire scene that I discover and will retranscribe at best the atmosphere that I could live on the spot.

The process of finding these abandoned pianos is not easy. I use several networks which can range from photographers to music and heritage. The most interesting is word of mouth. Indeed, it also happens that some people, after having read articles about my work or visited one of my exhibitions, guide me towards a new place to discover.

This project continues to evolve. Photography remains the main medium, but for several years now I have been recording the serial numbers of pianos, where they exist. For I have put my singular expertise at the service of the association Musique & Spoliations, which has set itself the mission of finding the instruments despoiled by the Sonderstab Music, the "Music Commando", created in August 1940 in France by the Nazi regime. The precious information collected is passed on to the association, which cross-references it with its archives to try to reconstruct the history of the instrument.

In addition, for several years now, I have been recording in situ, whenever possible, note by note, all the sounds of the pianos I discover. These recordings will be used to build a collection of virtual instruments that I will make available to the public online and at my exhibitions.

This method allows me to create a realistic sound model, to immortalize the sound of these pianos, and to capture their identities.

These sample libraries will give a second life to abandoned and sometimes hard-to-reach pianos, giving hundreds of musicians around the world the opportunity to make them sound.

This research will be presented at an upcoming exhibition in Paris.