Ouessant, Finistère, France

Un bateau dans les terres – Pour Marie

Ouessant (Finistère, France). The westernmost island off the coast of Brittany.
Battered by the ocean, ever present in the air though the sound of the waves and the smell of salty wind, never further than a mile's walk away.

And yet, surprisingly, I was drawn to look inland, away from the sea, most of the time at least.
As if what I had expected to feel like a boat sailing in the middle of the ocean ended up feeling like a cluster of land-stranded homes (with their occasional boats in the fields), sturdily weathering the incessant elements, drawing an inner vital strength from them.
Humanity attached to its rock, like a barnacle.

You'll not see the inhabitants. Warmly proud of their solitary lifestyle, some never having set foot on the continent.
Torn, as it often is the case, in front of a mounting wave of visitors somehow more threatening than the ocean waves themselves.
It felt right to tread lightly, not add to the burden.

Shot and edited under the guidance of Claudine Doury in March 2023. Series broadened here compared to the workshops' final output.