One of the paradoxes of the digital age is the complex new relationship we must navigate between proximity and difference – in some ways we are more connected than ever, but it’s a chimerical type of connection which often has the disorienting effect of making us feel more alienated from one another. When we touch the people we care about, our bodies release oxytocin, the hormone that bonds us to one another; when we kiss a lover, it stimulates dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. We can make contact with people via WhatsApp, DMs, FaceTime; we can look at their Instagram Stories. But it’s a diminished substitute for the bodily magic of inhabiting the same space; the sensation of physical touch or looking into each other’s eyes without a screen mediating the exchange. The internet enables us to disseminate information, but it impoverishes the intimacy of our interactions. 

Arthur Samier’s new photo book, Choose Love (published by Patrick Rémy Studio), is “a reaction to this contradiction”. The Paris-based photographer found himself reaching for his camera when he encountered instances of human connection; he wanted to capture meaningful physical exchanges, however fleeting. He didn’t intend to create a book; he was just accumulating photographs of his nights out in the city, but gradually a theme began to emerge; the pictures began to form a shape and become a body of coherent work. “I photographed friends, strangers I met, parties, intimate moments, people kissing and dancing, but also people standing alone in the middle of a crowd,” he tells Dazed. “Little by little, I understood the thread connecting everything I had been photographing. It wasn’t really about the night itself, but about the human relationships that can emerge within it: love, desire, friendship, loneliness and freedom.”

Nightlife offers the perfect situation to explore these themes. Love, desire, friendship, loneliness and freedom are all amplified after dark. Nighttime is a place we go to when we want to feel these things more intensely. “At night, bodies come closer. We dance, kiss, touch, laugh, meet,” he says. “At night, people seem to loosen their grip on who they are supposed to be. The social roles, routines and images we carry during the day become less important. People become more spontaneous, more vulnerable, sometimes more reckless.” He describes night as its own kind of “temporary world” where alternative rules apply, and intimacy is accelerated. “You can meet someone at two in the morning, share a cigarette, kiss them, tell them something deeply personal and, a few hours later, they might be a stranger again. That impermanence is part of what I find so romantic about the night. It permits people to live intensely, even if only for a few hours. And photography allows me to hold on to those fleeting moments before they disappear.”

Undoubtedly, Parisian nightlife is even more beguiling than most other locations. For Samier, it conjures up Neo-romantic associations. He is fascinated by the “ghosts” of Paris and its “nocturnal mythology”, and the persistent presence of the past. “The venues change, the generations change, but the city’s ability to reinvent itself at night remains,” he explains. “And Parisians know how to dress. There is a particular attention to clothing, silhouettes and appearance at night that I find difficult to find elsewhere with the same intensity.”

Samier himself, camera in hand, haunts Paris’ “legendary venues” – Maxim’s, Les Bains Douches, Bus Palladium, and, when it reopens, the Palace – but, for him, it’s less about the status of the club itself and more about its ability to foster the type of atmospheres and interactions he is interested in capturing. “I’m often drawn to moments when something escapes control: a kiss, two people moving closer, someone dancing alone, a gaze getting lost in the crowd,” he says. “But what really interests me is when contradictory emotions appear at the same time. A photograph can look incredibly joyful and still contain a certain melancholy. A beautiful face can seem completely elsewhere. That ambiguity is what moves me.” He’s attuned to the moments which “aren’t necessarily spectacular” but have a sublime, elusive quality – something he describes as “a moment of grace”.

Samier says, “In a world where dating apps and Instagram create an illusion of endless possibilities, I’m interested in what we risk losing: real human and physical contact. Having too many choices can actually scatter us.” The title of the book, Choose Love, is an objection to the fragmentation of the digital age and the disassociative, anaesthetising habit of reaching for your phone rather than reaching for a loved one’s hand. “Perhaps the title is ultimately the simplest part of the book. Choose Love is an invitation to choose encounter over distance, presence over the screen, risk over indifference. To choose love, even when it is fragile, temporary or imperfect.”

Choose Love is published by Patrick Rémy Studio and will be stocked at Antenne Books from 15 September 2026 onwards. The accompanying exhibition will be showing 10-13 September 2026 at Galerie Bertrand Grimont in Paris (75003).