Bernard Guillot - Hotel Maffet Astoria, 1979-2003

Hotel Maffet Astoria takes its title from the downtown pension where Guillot lived from 1979 until 2003. He was its last inhabitant. Over the years that he lived there, Guillot never tired of contemplating and exploring its rooms. Photographing incessantly and at all times of day, his images are love letters to every room and every passing guest. No time of day is left unrecorded, no stain or crack or faded wallpaper unnoticed, no guest overlooked. Of his time there, Guillot has said:

“I became little by little part of the family of that magical place. My photographs and paintings were a daily journal, a chronicle of life there. I visited most of the rooms, which I knew by heart, took my time and used long exposures. I was the last resident of the 80 year-old hotel. Now it is closed forever. I witnessed what took place in those walls. Like the city of the dead photographs, my works there are a testimony of a place, of myself, of time.”

All photograph are vintage gelatin silver prints.

Back to artist profile

All artists →