An Artist Puts a Fishing Village on the Map

Around 1900 Collioure was ‘discovered’ by Henri Matisse. He stayed here between 1905 and 1914. The beauty of the simple fishing village attracted him. The sunrise over the Mediterranean sea ensures that Collioure turns a beautiful pink. That attracted him. That’s also the reason why the colour pink is clearly present in his works.

Many other artists came to Collioure around the same time as Matisse did. They clearly put Fauvism, the art movement characterized by bright colours, on the map. In Collioure it is still the ‘path of Fauvism’, a walking tour through the village through various reproductions.

The artists met regularly at the hotel ‘Les Templiers’. At that time it was very common to pay bills with a painting. Les Templiers still exists and is full of art.

A Window into the Mysterious

The Travelling People, who are sometimes known as the Roma, gather each year in May to celebrate the saints Marie-Jacobe and Marie-Salome, and Saint Sara. There is a famous legend in this region of France that says that after the crucifixion of Jesus, the women of the Holy Family, the mothers of the disciples and a few others fled the Holy Land on a boat that had no sail or oars. Trusting to God, they were cast out on the Mediterranean sea, and eventually came ashore in Camargue, France, near a village now called Les Saintes-Maries de la Mer, by the western border of Provence.

Saint Sara is the sacro-saint of the Traveling People.

This is, for me, a visual poem in the style of stream of consciousness.

Equality

To me, equine photography is all about examining and capturing the relationship between a human being and a horse. I want to explore the special love and sharing that exists. There’s a relationship that is so out of the ordinary. Putting a saddle on and simply riding the horse, in essence consists of a dictatorship…there is not necessarily any real love, attachment, or some extraordinary bond. Not too long ago I had the good fortune to meet with Chris Irwin, which further influenced my approach to equine photography. Now I always ask myself a rather simple question: “What’s in it for the horse?” When your horse comes to you when you call him, he comes to you with free will. There is a friendship, a special synergy between the two. That is a relationship worth exploring through the camera.