WHEN THE MOUNTAIN TOOK THE PLACE OF MY FATHER - VICTOIRE EOUZAN
With the project ‘When the Mountain took the Place of my Father’, the French artist and photographer Victoire Eouzan (b. 1992) gives tribute to her late father through the personification of mountains.
Two years after Eouzan’s father passed away, the family decided to go on the Tour du Mont-Blanc - a popular long-distance walk that circles the Mont Blanc and passes though parts of Switzerland, Italy and France. During the tour, Eouzan took a lot of photographs of the mesmerising nature. Few days into the journey, the mountains started to embody Eouzan’s father. She then decided to change the way of photographing: instead of photographic landscapes she started to take portraits. After coming back home, she realised how each of the photographed peaks, trigger all sorts of memories. Despite the vast amount of images, each single shot evoked a specific memory and feeling of the time it was taken.
For the entire family, the trip was a healing experience. Being surrounded by mountains, felt like a sort of purification. Each following mountain and each following photograph was a step forward, a step towards the future. The massive rocks - sometimes covers with fresh snow, another time half-hidden in the clouds, or glowing in the morning light - all became monuments of the artist’s beloved father, keeping him alive.
The work was first presented as part of Eouzan's graduation show at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. It then took shape of a poetic carefully designed publication, now available on Artibooks.
You can meet Victoire's work and other 99 great photography talents on FRESH EYES book.