Seven years after a photographic work inspired by the Australian tragedy of late 2019 (1), wildfires are ravaging Europe, bringing with them their trail of tears and devastation. Once again comes the frustration of witnessing the lack of foresight among our political leaders, this headlong rush towards deadly consequences that the scientific community warned us about decades ago.
And there, before our eyes, relayed by the media and social networks, destruction, despair, the loss of a home — “but it’s only material,” you might say. Yet for many, it represents a lifetime of hard work. And then there is this courageous mother, red-eyed, telling the camera that she will not leave. No, she will rebuild. She is not defeated. She will rebuild everything just as it was before.
Just as it was before — but until when?
Yet who dares ask the question? Who dares to doubt, when women and men are risking their lives to put out the fires and save our homes?
In this landscape burned to its very soul, the small town of Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, France, at the heart of the fires, seems to be moving against the tide. Its mayor, together with philosopher Cynthia Fleury, is committed to ensuring that today’s vulnerabilities will tomorrow be offset by new collective capacities (2). So be it.
In the following series, composed of five triptychs, screenshots taken from videos uploaded by citizens wishing to bear witness are reproduced. Each photograph partly darkens over time, following the curve of areas in Europe burned over the past ten years (3).
Smoked, burned, desperate, reality turns dystopian when unanticipated.
In between, eternity, as we would wish it to be for generations to come.
Print size unframed: 3 x A4 (8.3 x 11.7 in), with inclusions of argentic paper.
Shooting places of videos: undetermined. Shooting place of sea: Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France.