STELLA
2005–2025

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Publication of the book Stella, November 2026 (Paris Photo)

Does a town belong to those who pass through it, or to those who live there?

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I live my life on holiday, in a town designed for fleeting visits and holidaymakers, yet I am one of those who live here all year round.

For as long as I can remember, I have always seen my hometown, Stella-Plage, as an American-style film set. The atmosphere of Westerns permeated its streets, where the builders were known as “pioneers” and the oldest residents as “Indians”. Stella is a project spanning twenty years, an exploration distilled into 66 photographs.

Far from a heritage-driven or documentary narrative, the project captures the sensations and atmospheres experienced by those who inhabit the town. Every alteration to the landscape, every disappearance, has been documented to trace the evolution of the place. The series plays with image treatment through warm tones, saturated colours and recurring flashes of red, immersing the work in the world of the American road trip. Sand, an invisible thread running throughout, connects the inhabitants of this French Far West. The solitude of the figures reveals a hidden sense of peace, found in the sight of the sea and in the freedom to gaze towards the horizon.