‘You can show the world you want to show,’ says Thierry Cohen about his ongoing series Villes éteintes [Darkened Cities], which presents composite images of dark urban landscapes with starry skies. To create the work offered here, Cohen photographed the city of Rio de Janeiro by day, using filters and under-exposure to simulate a nighttime view devoid of artificial light, then travelled to the Atacama Desert in Chile, located on the same latitude as Rio, to capture the vibrant constellations. ‘By combining two realities, I am making a third that you cannot see … but it exists! I am showing you the missing stars,’ explains Cohen. ‘I am not showing you post-apocalyptic cities, merely cities without electricity. I am bringing back the silence.’ The Paris-based artist was shortlisted for the 2015 Académie des Beaux-Arts Photography Award and has exhibited Darkened Cities in many cities worldwide, including New York, Dubai, Moscow and Genoa.