Hidden along the river, Martin Colombet’s Blue Bayou

10 June 2021   •  
Written by Eric Karsenty
Hidden along the river, Martin Colombet's Blue Bayou

With Blue Bayou, French photographer Martin Colombet paints the portrait of his lover Tess, deep in the forests where she grew up. Transported elsewhere, in a touching journey, we discover the blossoming moments of a love far from the world. This article can be found in our latest issue.

It is an imaginary land composed by two lovers, who are also in love with images. Martin, a photographer, composes them; and Tess, an iconographer, chooses them. But here, it is first and foremost her story that Martin has chosen to tell. A portrait increased with the places where she grew up, a bayou made in France where the French-American woman finds her roots. The story began on the other side of the Atlantic, near Boston, during the summer of 2018, when Tess’s grandfather suggested that the young couple go and see an exhibition by the photographer Sally Mann. “I knew her work,” Martin details, “especially the Immediate Family series, which had resonated strongly with me, but I’d only seen the book. Seeing the prints was a shock for me and for Tess too. When we returned to France, we made the first images.”

© Martin Colombet

A sensual and dreamlike network

Begun as a diary tracing the beginnings of their story, the first calotypes weave a sensual and dreamlike network. The meanders of the river are associated with the softness of bodies, plants and animals that seem to melt into it as if in a dream. Calotype, this old technique with strong constraints (low sensitivity, long exposure time, delicate setting of the 13×18 cm camera…) “influences the way of making photographs and posing,” analyses the photographer. Everything takes on more value, the shot becomes solemn. This process produces beauty beyond its plasticity and changes the relationship to time. Far from any nostalgia or the “slightly snobbish and elitist” side of pictorialist photography, Martin does not hesitate to add photos taken with a Leica or a smartphone in order to capture fleeting moments, snapshots that energise the narrative. “I like to mix generations of cameras, it allows you to travel in time. Even if the backbone of this work remains the calotype,” he adds.

© Martin Colombet© Martin Colombet

The first chapter

In the course of the images of this huis clos in the brackish waters of this Blue Bayou, “where she and I dialogue in the indifference of the world, places hostile to adult civility but where the wilderness of children can be fully expressed”, we see appearing what Tess and Martin call their totems: elements that mark out their story. For her, these are the trees, the canoes and the animals that saw her grow up. Then there is a bow made from a young ash tree that fell next to the house, and a knife whose handle was made from the cherry tree in the garden, which Martin gave her. Or the pikes caught in the river… A whole world as real as it is imaginary, constituting the first chapter of a story that the two lovers intend to continue. For their pleasure as much as ours.

© Martin Colombet

© Martin Colombet© Martin Colombet

© Martin Colombet

© Martin Colombet© Martin Colombet

© Martin Colombet© Martin Colombet

Blue Bayou © Martin Colombet

Explore
Readers picks #354
Readers picks #354
Bastien Brillard and Élise Toïdé, our readers picks #354, express what they feel through their pictures. One adresses a passionate love...
23 August 2021   •  
Written by Lou Tsatsas
Your favourite monthly discoveries of July 2021
Your favourite monthly discoveries of July 2021
Here’s a focus on five of the readers’ favourite discoveries, presented in July 2021 on Fisheye’s website: Mélanie Patris, SMITH...
02 August 2021   •  
Written by Anaïs Viand
Muse, military jacket and disposable cameras: Lucie Hodiesne Darras’s Chinese portrait
Muse, military jacket and disposable cameras: Lucie Hodiesne Darras’s Chinese portrait
“I try, through my pictures, to highlight what a person is about. To elevate people and the atmosphere that surrounds them”, Lucie...
15 July 2021   •  
Written by Finley Cutts
Your favourite monthly discoveries of June 2021
Your favourite monthly discoveries of June 2021
Here's a focus on five of the readers' favourite discoveries, presented in June 2021 on Fisheye’s website: La Fille Renne, Cecilia Sordi...
12 July 2021   •  
Written by Anaïs Viand
Our latest articles
View all articles
Readers picks #355
Readers picks #355
Alexander Kaller and Stephen Sillifant, our readers picks #355, both escape the frenzy of our world to produce peaceful images – a...
30 August 2021   •  
Written by Fisheye Magazine
British seaside, round animals and Céline Sciamma: Max Miechowski's Chinese portrait
British seaside, round animals and Céline Sciamma: Max Miechowski’s Chinese portrait
Trained as a musician, British artist Max Miechowski turned to photography after a long trip to Southeast Asia. Portraits...
25 August 2021   •  
Written by Lou Tsatsas
Instagram selection #312
Instagram selection #312
Through portraits or landscapes, the artists of our Instagram selection #312 never stop experimenting. All of them seek new textures and...
24 August 2021   •  
Written by Joachim Delestrade
The labourer who turned mud into silver
The labourer who turned mud into silver
With Zilverbeek (Silver creek), Lucas Leffler explores the myth of a worker who made his wealth from the mud that lined the bottom of a...
23 August 2021   •  
Written by Finley Cutts