White coal.
Editions le Bec en l'air| N° d'inventaire | 25059 |
| Format | 24 x 30 |
| Détails | 108 p., 50 color photographs, paperback. |
| Publication | Marseille, 2021 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782367441559 |
The Maurienne Valley in the French Alps presents a controlled and largely exploited landscape, marked by the ambiguities and contradictions inherited from its industrial history. The Arc torrent, which runs through it, was indeed conducive to the development of the aluminum industry, thanks to its capacity to supply factories with hydroelectricity. Nicknamed "Aluminum Valley," it is bordered by a highway and soon by a high-speed train line between Lyon and Turin, a project however tainted by suspicions of corruption and environmental damage. Despite a few winter sports resorts, most of the space in Maurienne is nevertheless uninhabitable, conjuring up the romantic image of pure and sublime nature.
In Charbon blanc , a patient documentary work carried out on this territory between 2016 and 2019, the young photographer Teo Becher combines two complementary image regimes. Faithful to a conception of photography inseparable from a wandering within a defined space, he begins by physically experiencing the Maurienne landscape: being in the mountains, walking there, breathing there, as close as possible to the topography, to the point where this "uninhabitable" mountain becomes a central character in his book.
At the same time, influenced by the thinking of Philippe Descola, for whom nature is a cultural construction and therefore the difference between nature and culture is nonsense ( Beyond Nature and Culture , 2005), and by the reflections on the Anthropocene of Donna J. Haraway, ( Staying with the Trouble , 2016, published in French by Editions des Mondes à faire, 2020), Teo Becher sought to photograph this moment when landscape and traces of human activity meet, in a relationship of interdependence rather than opposition.
While these two aspects of the work clearly fit into a documentary tradition, they nevertheless blur its codes by accepting chance and the imperfection of silver chemistry, carrying the reader into a dreamlike floating that reinforces this interdependence between human and landscape.
Finally, the book is punctuated by almost abstract images taken from photographic films buried in various locations along the Maurienne Valley for periods ranging from a few weeks to two years. These photos are printed on partially untrimmed pages, so as to conceal them, accentuating their mysterious character. The book is accompanied by a short essay on the history of aluminum in Maurienne written by Teo Becher.
Bilingual French/English work.
The Maurienne Valley in the French Alps presents a controlled and largely exploited landscape, marked by the ambiguities and contradictions inherited from its industrial history. The Arc torrent, which runs through it, was indeed conducive to the development of the aluminum industry, thanks to its capacity to supply factories with hydroelectricity. Nicknamed "Aluminum Valley," it is bordered by a highway and soon by a high-speed train line between Lyon and Turin, a project however tainted by suspicions of corruption and environmental damage. Despite a few winter sports resorts, most of the space in Maurienne is nevertheless uninhabitable, conjuring up the romantic image of pure and sublime nature.
In Charbon blanc , a patient documentary work carried out on this territory between 2016 and 2019, the young photographer Teo Becher combines two complementary image regimes. Faithful to a conception of photography inseparable from a wandering within a defined space, he begins by physically experiencing the Maurienne landscape: being in the mountains, walking there, breathing there, as close as possible to the topography, to the point where this "uninhabitable" mountain becomes a central character in his book.
At the same time, influenced by the thinking of Philippe Descola, for whom nature is a cultural construction and therefore the difference between nature and culture is nonsense ( Beyond Nature and Culture , 2005), and by the reflections on the Anthropocene of Donna J. Haraway, ( Staying with the Trouble , 2016, published in French by Editions des Mondes à faire, 2020), Teo Becher sought to photograph this moment when landscape and traces of human activity meet, in a relationship of interdependence rather than opposition.
While these two aspects of the work clearly fit into a documentary tradition, they nevertheless blur its codes by accepting chance and the imperfection of silver chemistry, carrying the reader into a dreamlike floating that reinforces this interdependence between human and landscape.
Finally, the book is punctuated by almost abstract images taken from photographic films buried in various locations along the Maurienne Valley for periods ranging from a few weeks to two years. These photos are printed on partially untrimmed pages, so as to conceal them, accentuating their mysterious character. The book is accompanied by a short essay on the history of aluminum in Maurienne written by Teo Becher.
Bilingual French/English work.