David Braillon (b. 1970) was born in Dreux, France, and grew up in a railway family. His father and brother were killed in motor accidents when he was a teenager. David Braillon’s fascination for trains goes back to his childhood and he would have liked to work in the railways, but failed to find a job with the French railway company. As a young man he hung around freight stations and collected railway magazines.

In 1995 he found himself in the lock-up, and spent all day and sometimes his sleepless nights drawing. He uses pieces of graph paper, which he puts together as a frieze representing army helicopters, fighter jets, and people, but his favourite subject is trains. He stacks his trains in horizontal registers in the manner of a catalogue or inventory.