Pursuing A Dream
Once upon a time, there was a lake in Southern California called the Salton Sea—almost a sea, without waves, so vast, beautiful, and idyllic was it. In the 1950s, it was known as the “California Riviera.” Towns sprang up all around the lake, along with vacation resorts, a marina, luxury RVs, cabins, and houses…
Since the 1970s, the water level has been falling inexorably and the salinity has been rising. What remains of this mirage is a reversal: the abandoned homes and RVs have become old, gutted husks, much like the dead fish scattered across the acidic soil of what were once beaches. People used to come here for a few days to let their hair down, go fishing, or simply spend their twilight years in the eternal pursuit of their dreams. Salton Sea has been overtaken by the reality of an abandoned world.
Isabelle Lemercier-Bréhat’s photographic work is not a news report, but a sensitive documentation of this resignation. The photography is deliberately direct; it asserts its power to challenge the viewer, and if there is any aesthetic here, it is that of abandonment, of being left behind—the aesthetic of disappearance, that of a world of which only a few faint traces remain.
In these images, there are no faces, no bodies, yet humanity is everywhere—in its weakness, its failings, its struggle to survive. On the former military base, people live on the margins, free and unhindered. The dwellings are temporary; time seems to stand still. There, God has his followers; people live as if in purgatory, waiting… The lives of the poor, the visionaries, the Snowbirds, and other outcasts revolve around this no man’s land.
Isabelle Lemercier-Bréhat collects unsettling situations; these are often chance encounters, yet she provokes them by organizing long journeys (last year in Arles, we saw her traveling series “From Bourg-la-Reine to Bourg-Madame”); encounters that often strike us as incongruous, absurd, or brutal, yet always possess the visual and artistic power of a moment set apart, framed, and revealed. Seeking out a photograph is an imperative quest. One must first go and see, envision the image to be captured, even if it means returning to the scene several times…
Isabelle Lemercier-Bréhat captures a free space where everything is unstable and uncertain. She photographed only what she saw—the essential.
Series created between 2010 and 2015
Alain Goulesque
Isabelle Lemercier-Bréhat’s photographs transport us along National Route 20 from Bourg-la-Reine to Bourg-Madame. One could easily imagine being on the legendary Route 66, crossing the United States from east to west. Yet we are indeed in France.
The facades of old movie theatres, deserted intersections, car wrecks, billboards overgrown with vegetation… Isabelle Lemercier-Bréhat captures these abandoned places with a sense of nostalgia, as nature gradually reclaims the urban space. These places, invisible to the naked eye, come to life through the photographer’s lens.
The facades of old movie theatres, deserted intersections, car wrecks, billboards overgrown with vegetation… Isabelle Lemercier-Bréhat captures these abandoned places—where nature is gradually reclaiming urban space—with a sense of nostalgia. These spots, invisible to the naked eye, come to life through the photographer’s lens.
The mundane is transformed into poetry, and beauty reveals itself where we least expect it. These photographs invite us to look at what lies hidden in every nook and cranny and allow us to imagine, as we please, the past history of these places.
Bernard Utudjian, Galerie Polaris
