Pronounced with a slight British accent, Deauville’s boardwalk, Wang Lin’s working title “Double Entendre” – produced in residence before summer, takes on an extra layer of exoticism to the obvious visual discordance when one discovers that these images have been created by a former Chinese stewardess.
Taking advantage of the Deauville airport, Wang Lin found herself on familiar ground to compose a new exploration of her own biopic. Like a fallen angel deprived of wings to fly, Wang Lin here plays the game of peekaboo so dear to Roland Barthes with his “that has existed”. “Here you see me here I no longer exist”, between the runway and the beach, between the sky and the sea, between the air element and the water element, between the sense and the absurd, Wang Lin expresses her being torn apart between gravity and freedom.
What is your impression of Deauville before and after your residence?
Since my resident photography project in Deauville was confirmed, I started to look for related images and information through internet, curator Jean Loh also sent me pictures of other previous resident photographers, I was able to form a preliminary imagery of Deauville: I imagined it as a high society seaside resort with fresh air, blue sea, fairy tales villas, and well-dressed and elegant inhabitants and tourists, something like a Xanadu. Although there are race course and Grand Casino, but neither of them appeared in my imagination as they are too removed from my personal experience.
When I arrived in Deauville from Paris by train, a beautiful girl welcomed me at the railway station, who has then accompanied me and my assistant during my shooting project in the following eight days, and to whom I would really want to express my gratitude.
Deauville is not a big city, it only took a few minutes’ drive to the beach hotel, and I fell in love with the place right away. There are no skyscrapers or fairy tale villas like I imagined, but high flying seagulls often come down landing on the wooded boardwalk, with people relaxing at the terraces of café, everything appears so quiet, harmonious, orderly and beautiful.
My shooting is focusing mainly on the airport. The Deauville airport is probably the smallest airport I have ever visited. Unlike big city airports, it is not so modern not so glamorous, it reminds me of the 1980’s. I think “small but exquisite, simple and unadorned” should be the perfect words for it. Off season there are not many flights here, you can barely find a soul when there is no landing or taking-off.
The airport director is a professional who takes his job seriously. He drew for me a simple layout, marking the areas I could take pictures and where I could not. When I saw the drawing, I wanted to shout out “What on earth can I shoot?” I was allowed to shoot the runway freely when there was no airplane, and when the planes came landing, I must stay at a distance of at least thirty meters away from the planes. I could shoot the airport’s fire trucks and the hangars sheltering private jets. Most importantly, I was not allowed to photograph any passenger, and no staff at the airport was willing to pose for me as model.
Although I was forced to keep adjusting my shooting plan due to these restrictions, I want to thank him for his care and attention. I understand his concerns for my safety. All these constraints and restrictions only motivated me further to try different angles to achieve the best representation possible of Deauville.
Biography:
Wang Lin was born in 1973 in Tianjin, became flight attendant on Hainan Airline in 1992. She resigned in 2001 to study photography at Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts. Then resumed her job with Okay Airline (first private airline in China) from 2005 to 2010, during that period she completed her documentary series on flight attendants with film-based and with digital cameras. She has exhibited in Pingyao photo festival and in Three Shadows Beijing where she was awarded the Shiseido 2012 Award for Best Woman Photographer. In 2012 her work “Stray Tulips” was selected for Photo Phnom Penh and for Getxophoto in Bilbao Spain in 2013. In 2014 she was invited by the Festival Alt 1000 of Rossiniere Switzerland. In 2015 she takes part in a group show “New York Image of China” in Queens New York.
FESTIVAL
Planche(s) Contact
Double Entendre
Wang Lin
Curator : Jean Loh
From October 17th to November 29th, 2015
Ville de Deauville
France
http://www.deauville-photo.fr
