This wonderful exhibition has a playful title, Partage de plage [Sharing the beach] and is part of the Planche(s) Contact “Off” Festival. It shows Deauville in a surprising light, far from the usual stereotypes. The beautiful text below was written to accompany the exhibition. The author of both the text and the images is Béatrice Augier, the wife of the mayor of Deauville.
I settled in Deauville some twenty years ago, but my powerful connection with the shoreline is much more recent. I needed time, a supreme luxury, to get to know it with every passing hour and season. I needed to walk barefoot on the sand, along the edge of sometimes-icy water, rather than simply observe it from the distance of the boardwalk.
I needed to rise early to enjoy the first hours of the morning when only horses await the dawn. I needed to absent myself from parties to relish the last flickers of the setting sun reflected in tide pools. Photography came about by way of Instagram which I wanted to appropriate to keep up with the world. Little by little it became an addiction.
This magnificent shoreline is vast and famous, but it is also the closest beach to Paris. And so people flock here from around the region, populating the beaches with all the hues of the rainbow, with their multicolored umbrellas, the colors of their skin, and their motley bathing suits. Of course, they don’t necessarily look like 1920s’ or even 1970s’ postcards, but no matter what nostalgic critics might say, they are a reflection of the world we live in.
I was deeply moved by the Sri Lankan families who, fully clothed, not knowing how to swim, would hold hands standing for hours knee-deep in water, entranced by the sea. Above all, I was impressed by the exuberant joie de vivre that breaks free, like long-suppressed energy, on hot summer days. Everyone would rush into the water, everyone would play, plunge, swim, shout, laugh, and share the beach with the same intense delight despite their incredibly varied origins, languages, social status, cultures, which in this very place at that very moment are taken for granted.
I am touched by this world which I have been observing for years with great passion and not without empathy. I felt compelled to tell its story, without any judgment, and to bear witness, through my photos, to the beauty of some of these moments.
I am only sorry that summer is so short, which lends a sense of urgency to the sun-bathed Sundays of August, filling me with anxiety about missing a beautiful shot. Those summer days have also dealt a blow to my rather ingrained intolerance, and have no doubt given me the impression of having gained some human understanding.
Béatrice Augier
Béatrice Augier, Partage de plage
Atelier Galerie Béa
14800 Deauville
France
