Burneds Forest

Everywhere the forest is burning. In spite of the flames, the tree remains standing, as if defying time and death. Gradually life will take its course, new plants will be born from the ashes. Yet the dead tree will still be there. Its lifeless body will remind us of the fragility of life. Death is omnipresent in photography: images of missing loved ones haunt our homes. The dead are photographed, for the memory of their features, so as not to be forgotten. Xelot's tree portraits are post-mortem photographs. After the fury of the flames begins the slow reconstruction. Photography here serves our collective memory. How long until photographs are all what we have left? With the exception of lightning, it is man who is at the origin of all forest fires, through negligence or malevolence. This same fire, which allowed man to emerge from the cave and conquer the sky, has become uncontrollable. Artificial light reminds us of the human dimension of these landscapes. Forest fires are a side-effect of human activity, so these devastated territories are a creation of man. "Like museum dioramas my photographs decontextualize the subject and create an idealized image of nature". This imaginary projection is a reflection of man's contemporary relationship with nature: the forest has become a space of fantasy. The weekly walks are like trips to museums. "The light of my torch chases away the darkness of the night and reveals a landscape transfigured by time and fire".