13_ORLANDO

ORLANDO 6:00 A.M.

Orlando, Florida, isn’t a city. Just highways, avenues, amusement parks and a little “downtown” next to some neighborhoods you’re better off avoiding. How to explain a city that doesn’t exist? With the time difference, I’m up early. I leave the hotel. I find myself on International Drive, on what looks like a Hollywood backlot. It’s 6am. The streets are empty. Everything seems sterile, drowned in the morning fog. Before the stores open, I photograph. I walk. I watch. I give myself an hour to take pictures. Until 7am, when the hotel buffet opens for breakfast. As the days go by, I begin to recognize several human trajectories that intersect, but never seem to meet. Between 6 and 7am, Orlando’s social life slowly falls into place. How to explain these parallel urban realities in pictures? I travelled to Orlando four times. And each time, I took pictures. For one hour, from 6 to 7am.