Les Héliotropes
Laurent Villeret / Dolce Vita
In the beginning, there is the journey.
There is the instinctive desire to realise, but not only that.
There is also the desire to recount the journey in a new grammar form, really write it, more than just transcribe it.
Such is the scale of the photographic challenge.
The alchemy
There is the photographer’s desire, finding his object by the grace of (thanks to) lost technology, chemistry from the last century: the Polaroid.
There are attempts and the arranging of a unique written form, a new flower with old fashioned shades, imagined as a print.
The photographer
For him, there is India in 2002 and the first transfers, even more trips and maturity, a gentle mastering, acquired over time. On the road to Mexico between two oceans, the practice/ way to proceed revealed itself, definitely linked to his wanderings.
Almost naturally the title appears: Heliotropes, obsessive plants whose leaves follow the sun.
He does not let himself accumulate memories. The constrained rhythm of the chosen technique makes this possible. There is his decision and the mad desire to capture the evanescence of things, which are indefinable other than by this procedure.
The landscape is supposed to be sensitive and mental. The only thing that counts is the photographer’s geography.
There is the grace of chance, a transfiguration of the image, or nothing. There is the always possible loss and the difficult but uncompromising choice of the photographer.
And the end?
Because normally there is an ending to this story. By force of circumstance, the last Polaroid will mark the final point of the adventure.
There are some strangely photographed luxurious objects, small precious stones sown as so many landmarks that will lead us to our destination.
In the end what remains is the gift of the Heliotropes.
Fabien Vernois.
