For his parents and their children, these were summer Sundays, beautiful days of reunions, swimming and playing in the sand… Of course, these memories are distant, not deeply rooted in the children’s memory, but the photograph bears witness to the beginning of his story.
Later, in the mid-70s, the setting remained the same, but the focus changed. Gone were the family outings: it was adolescence, the first “Mob” outings, nights in tents on wild camping sites, on the vastness of the almost deserted Piémanson beach, or at the little port and on the very closed beaches of Grau de la Dent, reserved for Saliniers.
A few years later, in the early 80s, the car replaced the moped, the tent was now in the trunk and Beauduc became the trendy beach with its sheds, old caravans and buses converted for a new life (and which would end up on the spot) for weekends and short breaks… In addition to daytime and night-time festivities, boat trips and fishing were also part of the program.
Some ten years later, a new episode was added to the program, still running today and “engraved in stone”… photography, nude photography! Since 1994, from spring to autumn, the beaches of Arles remain for him the photographic playground par excellence, with highly varied backdrops that change with the light and the season.
From Beauduc to Piémanson, over the course of several decades, many changes have taken place and continue to take place, both as a result of human action (demolition of coastal sheds, restricted access, forbidden wild camping…) and climatic factors (rising sea levels, reduced or disappeared beaches, cut-off paths…)… Nature is now reclaiming its rights, and the wild, confidential side of the old days is back.
This exhibition, made up entirely of gelatin-silver prints, is an anthology of thirty years of shots taken in these revisited locations and settings, featuring his models, immortalized in their radiant youthfulness for all eternity by the magic moment of the shutter release.
We photograph well what we like and know well… Enjoy your discovery.
