LOOKING FOR LOVE
One year of stolen portraits of anonymous couples kissing across different Parisian places.
A kiss is not neutral.
It exposes. It interrupts. It takes a risk, sometimes a small one, sometimes not.
It happens between men and women, women and women, men and men.
Between trans bodies. Between bodies that don’t bother to name themselves.
The kiss doesn’t care. It circulates anyway.
Across genders, across what is supposed to make sense.
These images don’t try to explain who these couples are. They don’t ask for context.
They leave love where it often exists best: unclaimed, uncaptioned, in motion.
Here, the kiss is not a metaphor.
It’s a physical fact.
Sometimes clumsy, sometimes careful. Sometimes obvious, sometimes almost missed.
But it always says this:
I’m here. You’re here. This is happening
Sometimes, looking for love simply means learning to notice it while it is already happening.
We’re delighted to present the photographs of Arthur Samier at La Suite.
A regular visitor to the Puces de Saint-Ouen, @arthur_samier collects moments the way others collect objects.. with instinct, precision, and a touch of nostalgia.
His work carries the pulse of Parisian nights, infused with the spirit of Philippe Morillon, The Palace, and the raw poetry of Tom Wood. Between elegance and excess, his lens captures the fragile glow of youth, the beauty of movement, and the rhythm of an era that never really ended.
It was only a matter of time before his universe met that of @jeanmarchervier.lasuite .
🗓️ And rumor has it… an exhibition might follow before the year ends.
🪩 5bis & 6 Impasse Simon - @paulbertserpette
#ArthurSamier #JeanMarcHervier #PhotographyExhibition #ParisPhotography #SaintOuen #LesPuces #ThePalaceParis #PhilippeMorillon #TomWood #NightlifePhotography #ParisArtScene #35mmcamera
It’s a misconception that @arthur_samier ’s work is all about models at Paris Fashion Week afterparties. Some of his rolls of film turn out star-studded, but in his eyes the subjects are anonymous lovers he encounters at night. “Whether people are known or not, models or not, is irrelevant to me,” he says.
Fewer people are going to parties to find hookups. “A fear of the other has emerged,” Samier, 26, says. He likes to call those who still dare to kiss freely “les résistants de l’amour”. When night falls, he throws on his biker jacket or a suit, polishes off an americano, and walks out of the door in pursuit of these last bold lovers, from a generation in the midst of a romantic recession.
Samier’s debut book Choose Love (2026) documents love at night in Paris over three years. From suspended moments at underground punk gigs to mondaine fashion week evenings, the images stretch from gritty to elegant in ambience. Lust unites the sawdust-covered dance floors and art nouveau carpets.
He hopes that his work will reactivate desire – to go out, be present and feel something real through another person. If FOMO is the impetus to get people out of the house, so be it.
“Young people are having less sex, whether out of inertia, a hesitation to approach others, or because the pandemic disrupted physical contact.” Some 28 per cent of French 18-24 year-olds have not had sex in the past year – an unfortunate jump from 5 per cent in 2006.
Read the full article at the link in bio.
Words by @phoebe.la.pirata
Edited by @smhlorn
Photography by @arthur_samier
“I’d like viewers to feel a kind of FOMO. A desire to go out, to connect with others, to kiss strangers in the dark, and by extension, to embrace the world. Ultimately, I hope my photographs give younger generations the desire to live and to love.”
Meet @arthur_samier , the Parisian photographer dedicated to capturing love at night in the city of love. What started out as a commission from GQ unfurled into a calling to capture the seemingly lost art of kissing strangers on a night out, and all the intimacies that follow. The photographer’s mission is to document the connections between people on nights out… very Viva Cache if you ask us. XX
Swipe through to read the full interview.
