Two Feet On The Ground presents a series of photographs made by Geoffroy Mathieu during a residency at Villa Albertine in Atlanta in the autumn of 2024. Walking through the city, Geoffroy Mathieu undertook a photographic exploration of Atlanta as experienced by the bodies and lives of those he considers to have “two feet on the ground” — people fully engaged with the world, far less detached than the machine-like bodies that move through the city at speed. Pedestrians by necessity, wanderers, workers, elderly people, and people with disabilities all share a common condition: exclusion from a society built around the automobile. Geoffroy Mathieu chooses to photograph them as forms of resistance — sometimes despite themselves — to a petrocentric system whose urban development, shaped by the American Dream, has pushed them to the margins and exposed them to constant danger.

These portraits of residents are rooted in specific places and are accompanied by photographs of landscapes, paths, traces, crossings, and objects that bear witness to their fleeting presence and their intimate connection with the environments they inhabit. The book also includes a selection of photographs documenting podiatric care sessions provided to unhoused people by the Harriet Tubman Foot Clinic. Deprived of regular access to hygiene facilities or appropriate footwear, and compelled to walk long distances every day, many suffer from foot-related health conditions that often go untreated due to limited access to essential care ; texts by Hannah S. Palmer and Lorna Mauney-Brodek.

The photographic series was produced during a residency at the Villa Albertine in Atlanta in autumn 2024, with the support of its partners: Friche la Belle de Mai (Marseille), Bureau des guides du GR2013 (Marseille), and Flux Projects (Atlanta). The book was supported by the Villa Albertine Post-Residency Grant in 2025, in partnership with the Albertine Foundation, and by a publishing grant from the Centre national des arts plastiques in 2026.