I discovered this landscape when I was working as an exhibition curator on the collection of the early 20th century photographer Emile Vigne. I often visited the region, and was used to this landscape of moorland and forest. The devastating storm (Klauss) hit the Landes on 25 January 2009. Shortly after the storm, I returned to the area and was suddenly struck by the bareness of the landscape and the appearance of the horizon, which until then had been cut by an infinite number of trees.
It was a shock to me. By day, the landscape was unbelievably brutal, hard… I remember I didn’t want to make any more images. My desire for landscape was destroyed. The blue sky and the white light of winter carved out what was left of the forest in stark realism. There was no longer any possibility of imagination in this landscape. The night would open up other perceptions of the landscape.
Vent nocturne is made up of two complementary series of images: large, almost monochrome landscapes (in colour) featuring the ghostly silhouettes of ‘resistant’ trees, and a series of photographs showing portraits of stumps blown over by the wind. What was underground comes to light, and a world of roots rises to the surface.