Land Art

The natural and regional Park of Camargue, in Southern France, captured my heart, my soul and my mind three years ago.

Flying above its salt marshes is very inspiring. It captures the mind and senses and elevates them to another realm.

The nature there is truly spectacular, showcasing mother nature’s raw and fragile beauty, which never fails to impress with its shapes and colors.

As saline levels elevate during the summer months, the shrimps disappear, causing the algae to proliferate. The colors reach their maximum levels of intensity before shifting, colors can vary from lighter shades of green, yellow to vibrant red.

The strong contrasts and geometric shapes of the salt marshes can remind us of abstract paintings.

The resulting photographs combine these vivid and natural colors with geometric shapes, creating a series of abstract stills that fall somewhere between Painting and Photography.

The series "Land Art" is doing reference to famous paintings, while expressing the same powerful emotions as Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, Chagall, Rothko or Miró's Artwork can provoke.

"Land Art" is a series of photos taken with my head and my camera pointing directly downwards, on board an ULM.

(On the left, you will see my photos and on the right the reference to the painting.)

Le Parc naturel et régional de Camargue, dans le sud de la France, a capturé mon cœur, mon âme et mon esprit il y a trois ans.

Voler au-dessus de ses marais salants est très inspirant. Il capture votre esprit et élève tous vos sens dans un autre monde. La Nature y est spectaculaire, mettant en valeur la beauté brute et fragile de notre Mère Nature, qui ne manque jamais d’impressionner, tant par ses formes que par ses couleurs.

Lorsque les niveaux de sel augmentent pendant les mois d'été, les crevettes disparaissent, provoquant la prolifération des algues. Les couleurs atteignent ainsi toute leur intensité maximale, pouvant varier du vert clair, au jaune vif ou au rouge intense.

Les forts contrastes et les formes géométriques des marais salants rappellent ici des peintures abstraites.

Les photographies qui en résultent, associent ces couleurs vives et naturelles à des formes géométriques, pour créer une série de photographies abstraites qui se situent quelque part entre la peinture et la photographie.

La série "Land Art" fait ici référence à des peintures célèbres, tout en exprimant les mêmes émotions puissantes que peuvent provoquer les œuvres de Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, Chagall, Rothko ou Miró.

Ma série de photos "Land Art" a été prise avec ma tête et mon appareil photo face au sol, à bord d'un ULM.

(A gauche, ma photo et à droite la peinture en référence.)

Chagall's_color_of_love_©Magali_CHESNEL.

"The walk of pink flamingos"

« When I make paintings, my work is based on the emotions of my life’s journey…

My paintings are filled with light. Light and colour are related: when you have light, then you have a spatial structure for variations in color.

I believe that lightless picture planes are flat and lifeless… » Chu TEH-CHUN

As Chu, I believe the most important element to be captured in a photograph is emotion, internal light, which inspires feelings with the viewer.

Pointillism_of_Camargue_Â©Magali_CHESNEL

Reference to Chu TEH CHUN

« When I make paintings, my work is based on the emotions of my life’s journey…
They are filled with light. Light and colour are related: when you have light, then you have a spatial structure for variations in colour. I believe that lightless picture planes are flat and lifeless… » Chu Teh-Chun
As Chu, capturing in a photo emotion and internal light is what inspires feelings with the viewer.

N°30

In the 1940s, Mark ROTHKO began to be influenced by Surrealism and abandoned Expressionism for more abstract imagery, forms.
He was fascinated with the articulation of interior expression.

For Rothko, the Master of colors, color was only a vehicle towards an emotional reaction evoked in the viewer. The only response that matters is emotional, in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.

To stand in front of a Rothko’s painting is an experience. You are in the presence of the pulsing vibrancy of his enormous canvases. His objective: to feel, if only momentarily, something of the sublime spirituality he relentlessly sought to evoke.

"A painting is not a picture of an experience, it is an experience." – Mark Rothko
Dorothy Seiberling, "The Varied Art of Four Pioneers," LIFE, November 16, 1959

I deeply think this is the same as well in photography. We should all do with a bit more of Rothko’s principles in our lives, way to photograph: insisting on the primacy of raw emotion.

Reference to ROTHKO

For Rothko, the Master of colors, color was only a vehicle towards an emotional reaction evoked in the viewer. The only response that matters is emotional, in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.

Magali
CHESNEL
Artist painter & self-taught photographer

"The walk of pink flamingos" ©Magali CHESNEL

Reference to Chu TEH CHUN

"N°30" ©Magali CHESNEL

Reference to ROTHKO

For Rothko, the Master of colors, color was only a vehicle towards an emotional reaction evoked in the viewer. The only response that matters is emotional, in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.

"The walk of pink flamingos" ©Magali CHESNEL

Reference to Chu TEH CHUN

"N°30" ©Magali CHESNEL

Reference to ROTHKO

​

​For Rothko, the Master of colors, color was only a vehicle towards an emotional reaction evoked in the viewer. The only response that matters is emotional, in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.

For Rothko, the Master of colors, color was only a vehicle towards an emotional reaction evoked in the viewer. The only response that matters is emotional, in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.