Meeting with Corinne Mercadier who adheres to the tradition of artistic photography. In the context of Planche(s) Contact, she continues, in Deauville, her series “The sky begins here”, initiated in 2013. Staged photographs by day then reworked in nocturnal environments with dancers and objects on the roof terraces of the great seafront establishments.
L’Oeil de la Photographie : Did you know Deauville before coming or had you only mental images?
Corinne Mercadier : I pursued “The sky begins here” series in Deauville because that city commissioned the work via a residence for the festival. I knew Deauville, but when asked to produce a work on a particular place, you look at it differently. I therefore came to location scout beforehand. It was all the more necessary because my photographs are staged, and I work from photos of locations in order to imagine what is going to happen, in what settings, with which characters and objects…
ODLP : What place does the sea occupy in your work?
CM : A very important place. Since the beginning of my photographic work, in the early 90’s, water and the horizon are present. Whether it be ponds or sea, this vastness is treated as a mirror to the sky, a summary of the infinite. It gives depth to the image that takes us to a space at once disturbing and poetic.
ODLP : For you what is the secret, the magic of a successful staging?
CM : Foreseeing, organizing everything, but playing with the unforeseen of the moment. The light, the wind, the movement of characters and objects have a strength of reality that combines with the project.
I feel with my preparatory drawings that I am proposing a card game with chance, and at the time of the shooting I’m ready to integrate the unforeseen into my pictures, the unexpected. My game then makes sense. Yes, it is magic.
FESTIVAL
Planche(s) Contact
Corinne Mercadier
Le ciel commence ici
From October 17th to November 29th, 2015
Ville de Deauville
France
http://www.deauville-photo.fr
