Francoise Lerusse
Photography
Chaos
Book published in 2021.
Extract
"Chaos" is the first word that came to mind when I first discovered Bangkok in 2017. With its exponential population growth, its out-of-control development, its legendary traffic jams, Bangkok represents for me what Le Corbusier once said about New York: "a cataclysm in slow motion." This series of photographs reflects accumulation, confusion, saturation, energy, Brownian motion, the overabundance of everything.
Journey into a mirage
In February 2023, I sailed through Dubai. "Sailed," as in, on the web, because Dubai has all the hallmarks of a virtual world. This concept city was planned and built over three generations, in the middle of the desert. Everything is very carefully designed: the road junctions, the railways, the building blocks with their water features and palm trees. In this world of developers, one feels like one is in a blueprint or an architect's model, like those proudly displayed in various public places. Or in a science fiction universe. Because the ambition of the current sheikh is to offer the world "the best of the future," as can be read in his book and on the signs visible throughout the city. In Dubai, order reigns, everything is controlled. Screens are everywhere, as are the police. Will this reality become ours? Under what control and in what artificiality will we agree to live? Perhaps one day archaeologists will find the city buried in the sand, or will it vanish like a mirage, as suddenly as it appeared.
In February 2023 I "browsed" Dubai. “I wrote "browse", because Dubai has everything of a virtual world. This concept city was planned and built over three generations, in the middle of the desert. Everything is carefully drawn, the road junctions, the railways, the blocks of buildings with their ponds and their palm trees. In this world of developers we feel like we are in a blueprint or an architect's model, like those that are proudly displayed in different public places. Or in a science fiction universe. Because the ambition of the current sheik is to offer the world “the best of the future” as we can read in his book and on the signs visible throughout the city. In Dubai, order reigns and everything is controlled. The screens are everywhere, and so are the police. Will this become our reality? What kind of control and artificiality will we accept to live under? Perhaps one day archaeologists will find the city buried in the sand, or it will disappear like a mirage, as suddenly as it appears.
The agony of the modern
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
This photographic series focuses on the industrial region of Charleroi in Belgium. Shaped by the steel industry, this territory is emblematic of the dream of modernity born in the 19th century. This dream developed at the expense of the urban fabric and slowly declined until the 1960s and 1970s, finally shattered by unemployment, poverty, climate change, and environmental destruction. Today, this image of chaos and dereliction of the old modern world is mitigated by the beginnings of urban renewal with a more human face. These photos bear witness to an era that left an indelible mark on the natural and human landscape.
The Last Lands
In a changing world, landscapes, like species, are threatened. This book is intended to be the trace of a landscape in danger of extinction, on the southern outskirts of Lisbon. It addresses the inexorable erasure of a natural and agricultural heritage where peri-urbanization is progressing rapidly. This sensitive story connects to the universal theme of the complex relationships we have with nature, but also the bitter struggle for its survival, in the interstices left by man. These "altered landscapes," broken, worn, undone, remade, past or in the making - and so human because they have always been inhabited by man - even if man is deliberately left out of the frame in my images - also echo an inner landscape, that of my childhood. In the region where I was born, I knew the traces of old meadows and orchards that had given way to the railway, heavy industry and terraced houses. These images are therefore also a reflection of my memory and my emotions.