The stretch of Wilshire Avenue between Fairfax and La Brea in Los Angeles has long been known as the Miracle Mile. The remains of its Art Deco architecture testify to its overnight boom from farmlands to a thriving commercial centre during the 1920s. Here, the wonders of consumerism, success, and grandeur were granted a religious reverence. However, since the advent of the post-war shopping centre, the area has slipped into commercial decline. Suburban consumers were no longer attracted to the traffic and congestion of downtown centres. Nevertheless, today’s presence of three major institutions – the Petersen Automotive Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and A + D Museum -...

Lost in the middle of nowhere in the Mojave Desert, it is here that the American dream ends. With ten kilometers of dirt road until the first town, a break in the sky reveals the last resting place for the former glories of the American automobile industry. The several square kilometers yard is fenced in by the crushed and shredded remains of the cars themselves. However, we couldn’t simply wonder onto the grounds. We must wait for a guard whose sole responsability it is to open the gate in exchange for a mobile home for shelter and a bit of money to feed himself. The couple who lives there was homeless before moving in the desert. A few cars still running are their only means to...

Tiny town in Mojave Desert with two ressources that maintain it alive : tourists going to Joshua Tree and the Desert warfare training range for the Marines. This city crossed by Interstae 62 has an astonishing number of Mural Paintings. These walls becoming the memory of 29 Palms

Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. It houses two distinct desert ecosystem : Colorado’s desert and Mojaves’ desert. (The Park was a favoured retreat for the hippy’s movement of Los Angeles in 1970s.)

"Foreclosure Alley" is now the nickname for Inland Empire which is in the vast Los Angeles Area. Along the 15 freeway hundreds of gated communities were created with their adjacent malls in less than five years. What was the american dream is now a tremendous nightmare with an astounding number of foreclosures. Now "For Sale" or "Bank Owned" signs are the new landscape.

Situated two hours north of Los Angeles, between Mojave desert and Sequoia Park. Bakersfield, champion for the agriculture but above all for its oil supply.

Guillaume Zuili carries on with his own exploration of the photographic technique. This «fragments series» is shot with a pinhole camera : a simple box with a hole in to let the light go through. This way the photographer tries to find again the gist of the picture production. In Zuili’s work, the technique is only important if it’s to help another type of searching : the urban exploration of a fantasy America, fixed in its past and popular culture greatness.

This story concludes a project filled with discoveries of California state cities. Black and white has replaced colour. The frame is filled with brand, modern symbols, leaving the city drawing its own map. The urban adventurer photographer succeeds to a photographer who can be overwhelmed by the city. The result is a metaphorical portrait of an area submerged by codes and images.

Los Angeles serie continues what was started in San Francisco. With more proportions, more madness ... but also more decadence. The world capital of cinema is at the edge of desert, as in relief to face its own destruction. Everything is more grandiloquent in Zuili’s shots ... but the frame is less loaded. It is emptied from what is no longer defined in California.

Pondichery, Chandernagor, Karikai, Yanaon and Mahé... Zuili magnifcally recreates the nostalgic atmosphere and emotion of those old trading posts whose exotic names are still enchanting our memories.

First stage of a Californian odessey, San Francisco carries in itself a part of the American dream. The tamed West, witness of an artistic effervescence that reponds to New York, on the other side of the country. San Fransisco is a spot for every fringe element of the society, the bohemian artists...a stage on the road of Jack Kerouac. It is also a city with a particular geography, built on the side of the hills. Zuili explores and tame this playground.