A dormant volcano in the French Massif Central towers above the city of Clermont-Ferrand. This is where Jürgen Nefzger (*1968 in Fürth) sets out on his nocturnal journey. We accompany him along the individual photographs in his new series Nocturnes on the long and lonely stretches down into the heart of the sleeping city.

It is a workday between midnight and four in the morning. The gray suburbs are quiet and almost empty of people. The architectural travesties, the gas stations and supermarkets, lit up for no reason, look surreal. Time seems to be standing still. A mysterious, somewhat uncanny nighttime atmosphere hovers over the parks and streets. The mood in Nefzger’s photographs is captivating, and we follow him on his path to a dawn that will never arrive.

Exhibition schedule: Musée d’Art Roger-Quilliot, Hôtel Fontfreyde, Clermont-Ferrand, November 14, 2008–February 22, 2009