La Défense is an office district in the Paris metropolitan area. The district is named after a statue, representing the defence of Paris during the Franco-German War. The district is a continuation of the so-called historical axis of Paris, which runs west from the Louvre via the place de la Concorde, the avenue des Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe and the avenue de la Grande-Armée, with the most famous building of la Défense at its end: the Grande Arche de la Défense, commissioned by François Mitterrand.
Only 20,000 people live there, but about 150,000 work there. This 160-hectare area is home to 2.5 million square metres of office space, used by 1,500 companies. It is the largest office district in Europe. Most of France's top companies have their headquarters there, in one of its skyscrapers.
"It is part of the photographer's job to look more intensely than most other people. It is the attitude of a child seeing the world for the first time or of a traveller visiting a foreign land."
Bill Brandt, English photographer (1904 - 1983)..
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