36 Views of Notre-Dame

On April 15, 2019, fire devastated Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral. Artist and photographer Tomas van Houtryve obtained remarkable access to the cathedral to document the devastation of the fire and the cathedral’s reconstruction.

In his new book, 36 Views of Notre Dame, van Houtryve brings the viewer on his fourteen-year journey photographing the Paris icon before and after the fire. Drawing inspiration from Hokusai’s series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, the artist explores the monument in different contexts and seasons, using a wide range of photographic techniques—from 19th-century wet collodion to aerial drones.

Tomas van Houtryve is a photographer who uses a wide range of contemporary and early techniques, continually questioning and reinventing his approach to image-making. He spent a year documenting the efforts to save Notre-Dame from ruin after the devastating fire of 2019. A selection of his honors include the ICP Infinity Award, the Bayeux Prize for War Correspondents, the CatchLight Global Fellowship, a National Geographic Explorer’s Grant and the Roger Pic Award. He published Lines and Lineage in 2019. Represented by the Baudoin Lebon gallery in Paris, he is a member of VII Photo Agency since 2010.