The Walther Collection

France, b. 1978; lives and works in Marsais, France

François-Xavier Gbré was born in Lille, France. After studying photography at the École Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques in Montpellier, he worked in fashion and design photography in Milan.

He deals with the symbolism of valorized objects and those left behind. His series "Tracks" (2009–16) spans West Africa and Europe, and renders interior scenes and the surfaces of abandoned buildings constructed during the colonial era or at the moment of independence. Throughout, Gbré sustains an examination of aesthetic and sociopolitical forces on architecture—those "spaces that reflect society." As he mines through ruins of the past and monuments for an unfulfilled future, Gbré reveals how these sites become symbols of uncertainty, which remain entrenched in the layers of each structure and rearticulated across time and space.