Mémoire de Paysages – Surrealist Photography and Digital Collages to Reinterpret Reality

“Mémoire de Paysages” is likely my most personal work to date. This photographic series lies at the intersection of figuration and abstraction, realism and surrealism, and is deeply inspired by my feelings of displacement and estrangement. More than 20 years after leaving my native archipelago, I find these familiar places to be strangely foreign, as if I have become a stranger to them. This series questions how our personal memories and experiences shape our perception of the world through photomontages and digital collages.

Series Description

“Mémoire de Paysages” explores the sensation of displacement and questions our relationship with our immediate surroundings. Rather than living in a physical space, this series suggests that we inhabit the memory of the places we have traveled through. Each photograph is a recomposition of architectural elements and landscapes, drawn from my native archipelago, my daily life in Paris, and elsewhere. Through digital collages and photomontages, I create fictitious landscapes that appear realistic at first glance but are, in fact, impossible.

These fictitious landscapes, though entirely invented, are realistic enough to invite the viewer to question their relationship with reality. This series plays with the boundary between real and imagined, allowing each person to reinterpret spaces they think they know.

Creative Process

The creative process behind “Mémoire de Paysages” is based on the combination of several photographic shots to construct a new photographic reality. The digital collages are created from architectural and landscape elements, forming surreal compositions. Each image is made up of fragments of architecture and natural landscapes, combined to create a landscape that could have existed but never did.

Using photomontage techniques allows me to convey the feeling of estrangement and belonging to imaginary places. My distant homeland, recreated through these works, is a reflection of memory—a construction somewhere between reality and dream.

Artistic Goals

With “Mémoire de Paysages”, my goal is to challenge how we perceive our surroundings and our memories. Rather than living in the present, this series suggests that we reside in the memory of the places we have passed through over time. Each of these surrealist photographs offers a journey into an invented, yet plausible reality.

By deconstructing the real through digital collages, I aim to invite the viewer to reconsider their own relationship with reality and the memory of landscapes. This work of reinterpretation transforms each photograph into a unique artwork, combining multiple worlds to form a new one—impossible, yet deeply evocative.