Série verte, green landscapes of Brittany, Normandy and Isère
The reverse of La matière du temps: here the landscape is sharp, present, precise. A green with nothing lush about it, the green of wind, low skies and undecided seasons.
Green, sharp and unaltered
Série verte (Green Series) takes the opposite path from the two previous series. Here everything is sharp. The landscape is neither stretched nor suspended, it is looked at head on, with the precision of medium format. The subject is not a place, it is a colour: the green of wind-flattened grass, flat fields, cropped meadows and undergrowth.
The images were made in Brittany, Normandy and Isère. Three regions that do not share the same green: the coastal green is short, clipped by salt and wind; the green of the plains is broad and heavy under a low sky; the green of Isère climbs, darkens and closes into forest.
What the series looks for
Nothing lush, nothing spectacular. A green of low skies and undecided seasons, closer to grey than to emerald. The series is interested in what colour says about a place once everything else is taken away: no monument, no viewpoint, no figure.
The wreck stranded in the mud, the only identifiable object in the set, earns its place because the green paint of its hull has aged the way the grass around it has.
How the images are made
Shot on a Hasselblad 907X with the 50CFV II back, in natural light. Short exposures, precise focus, no camera movement. Medium format gives enough definition for the detail of the grass to hold up in large prints.
Prints and acquisition
Single unique prints on Jean-Pierre Gouy's handmade hemp paper, 25 × 32 cm, with high-resolution digital files available separately and worldwide shipping.