In the beginning, there was the idea of creating a series of wet collodion photographs to be taken in the vicinity of my native land.
Little by little, as I scouted out locations, it became clear to me that certain iconic sites in the Landes and Basque country, whose origins were rooted in the history of the mid-19th century under the reign of Napoleon III, had the same time marker as the invention of photography. Photographing the Villa Belza (1880), the Rocher de la Vierge (1865) and the Estacade (1858) using the wet collodion process (1850) became a matter of course for me.
It was a real obstacle course to produce these large-format plates, and it took me three years of hard work to get there. With shooting windows limited for a variety of reasons linked to the weather, tides, temperatures, heavy swells, frequentation of the area, construction work, and only being able to work at certain times of the year, the vagaries of life kept postponing my project.
As the saying goes, « every cloud has a silver lining »!
The global health situation in the first quarter of 2020 coincided with a perfect alignment of the planets, allowing me to take action. An exceptionally mild winter, strong tides without the slightest swell, crystal-clear light and, as restriction dictates, an almost total absence of human presence in infinity.
This creative confinement has enabled me to produce a few shots that will remain in my history as an expression of time immemorial. Other photographs are currently being taken, and a first exhibition will be open to the public in Biarritz in the autumn.
Signed and numbered art prints on ©chromaluxe , framed in an American aluminum box and made in France at Profikolor , available on request.
A suivre….
BT
