Stella

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always thought of my town, Stella-Plage, as an American-style movie studio. 

Is it the movies that have influenced my perception of Stella, or is it Stella who resonates within me like a cinematic echo? The atmosphere of Westerns permeated the streets, where the settlers were called “pioneers” and the oldest residents “the Indians.” 

Stella is a project spanning twenty years, an exploration distilled into some sixty photographs. Far from being a heritage or documentary narrative, it captures the sensations and atmospheres experienced by those who live in this city. The project is conceived as a film, featuring long takes of places frozen in the twilight and close-ups of the residents. Every change to the setting, every disappearance, has been immortalized to capture the evolution of the space. 

The series plays with its visual style, featuring warm tones, saturated colors, and a recurring shade of red, immersing the work in the world of an American road trip. Sand, an invisible thread running through the series, connects the inhabitants of this French-style Wild West. The characters’ solitude reveals a hidden peace—the kind brought by the sight of the sea—and that right to the horizon so often championed in our culture.