Summer 2022, the Arcachon Bay area was ablaze. The fire blackened the horizon, the forest was disappearing. I went to the mountains, to the Aspe Valley, not to escape, but to breathe. And I photographed. That would be the starting point.
Before photography, there was painting; it was through painting that I first learned to express myself. This pictorial origin is still evident in the way I work with my images. Photography came later, naturally.
My first reimagined images emerged from the shock of the devastating wildfires. Landscapes transformed into negatives and then recolored. A way of revealing what the fire had hidden, of letting nature reclaim its voice. I say that this work is like an attempt to repair or soothe, with soft colors, like a caress on the charred blackness.
But the series doesn’t end there. I continue, I evolve, I refine my approach. Nature, for me, is a presence, a refuge, a space for healing. Being in contact with it becomes a necessity, in the face of the violence of the world, of my own personal and collective anxieties. Protecting nature is also protecting myself from my own suffering.
During my hikes, I see “thousands of paintings.” My photographs are fragments of them. Mental representations, where each landscape becomes the starting point for an inner journey. The colors saturate, they vibrate.
And then, there is this element: the charred wood.
I frame some of my works with charred pine wood, treated using the Japanese shō sugi ban method. The frame becomes a material; it still smells of ash, it crackles slightly. It is not merely for decoration, but to engage in dialogue.
“Framing my photos with charred pine wood is a way of keeping a trace of the fires, of the scorched landscapes, of the feelings of loss…
But it is also a way of showing that nature resists, that it transforms.” The blackened wood becomes the canvas for a vibrant image.”
I invite the viewer to slow down, to feel, to allow themselves to be moved by the artwork. More than just landscapes, these are spaces for introspection.
