This first survey monograph spans Stéphane Couturier's entire career from his photographs of construction sites, factories and ex nihilo cities taken with a large-format camera to his transition to digital photography including the ongoing series Alger - cité Climat de France. Couturier is interested in the notion of urban archeology, central theme of his work questioning the transformations of our surrounding landscapes.

Two new essays shed light on this visual journey. In a first text, Mathieu Poirier examines the deconstruction and transformation of reality themes in Couturier's work. In the second text, François Cheval focuses on the series Alger - cité Climat de France currently exhibited at the Musée Niépce in Chalon-sur-Saône, France.