QASD (en)

français

Intentions

All photographs were taken in a Provencal forest, not far from the lands where Cézanne painted, in a limited area of 0.8 square kilometre (ca. 80 ha). It’s a hilly region, situated between the communes of Cassis, Roquefort la Bédoule and Carnoux. 
This exploration, conducted in search in the depths of the forest, off the beaten track and in search for a full and flamboyant landscape resulted in a great diversity of images. The series was carried out as a gallery of landscape pictures, just as there are galleries of portraits. Each scene is independent, it doesn’t represent any particular path I took.
During the time I spent in the forest, I unexpectedly discovered certain objects; an area that I naively believed to be untouched, perhaps except for the presence of a few walkers, turned out to be a place very much used. There were many stone quarries of different sizes, firefighters in training, a car thief, a beekeeper, people walking, dumping sites, a biker and of course, hunters. All these activities happening over time left traces that I came upon and collected photographically as artefacts of the history of this forest.
The resulting project is a hybrid form associating a sensitive photograph with an inventory of objects. The project was started from a personal desire to immerse oneself in a teeming nature that is difficult to penetrate. The quest was coupled with a documentary, even archaeological investigation. The solitary walk in the forest is a practice that allows a form of introspective meditation. This series is part of my quest to understand my relationship to the world in which photography has accompanied me since my beginnings. The landscape is for me, through the composition, the pretext to feel and organize the physical world that influences our mind.
To those who search, the responses come rarely, and that’s why Quests Are Sometimes Disappointing

The publishing project is designed as two complementary parts with, on the one hand, the printed book containing only the photographs and, on the other hand, the website providing information on the project and the collection of forest objects.