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February 2015 issue
by François Schaer
Jours Blancs literally meaning ‘white days’, is when visibility is greatly reduced
on the ski slope due to the fog. Within this atmosphere, I take you on a surreal
and poetic photographic journey, into the world of snow and ski, and
document the workers behind the scenes of the ‘white gold’.
My passion for mountains has been the starting point for this work. I have been
looking at new and positive angles in which to create an enigmatic tale around
the snow and ski world. Deliberately echoing 19th century Romantic imagery,
my images of ski slopes reveal the originality of a ‘new contemporary
landscape’. I focus on its intrinsic aesthetics, its extreme beauty. My work is far
from condemning the degradation of the mountain landscape.
Jours Blancs also goes behind the scenes of the snow and ski world: I set out to
meet these snow workers and take unadorned portraits of them, thus revealing
an unexpected insight related to mountain occupations in winter. A few images
of sport competition complete this «shadow brochure» of the ski world.
Choosing to photograph on days of white-out only, allows me to move into
another dimension, theatrical, a little like at the end of a performance after the curtain has fallen. The presence of
objects on the ski runs seem immutable, set against a decor where a uniform white glow envelopes the skiers and
bightens them; ski-ing becomes an extraordinary tale.
The photographs were taken between 2011 and 2013 in the Swiss Alps.