Dominique Issermann
President of the photography jury an guest of honor
LA DIGUE DU LARGE, PORT OF MARSEILLE, 1997
No wall to lean on, I ask Mickey Hardt to hang on to the bar stretched between the two masts planted on the seawall.
The wind sculpts the light summer suit, respecting the gomina that contrasts with the sun.
Barefoot, shirtless, he escapes from work for a moment, his gaze is lost where everything becomes beautiful.
I saw everything in one click.
We just made a picture for the fashion designer Claude Montana.
VILLA NOAILLES, HYÈRES, 2021
The photo is now hung on the metal structure of the room with sailor’s ropes, the tarp hoisted high like a sail.
The young man balancing defies gravity, the sun-warmed wind, the blinding white seawall, where the open sea is so close.
All this enclosed in the rectangular box of the squash court, where the muscular impacts of the leather balls still echo against the walls. Tied up like in a spider’s web, he is observed from every angle, scrutinized from every seam.
The eye sinks into a vertiginous space, as in a cage without bars. Mickey Hardt, suspended in his flight, jubilant in the effort to maintain himself at the breaking point, finds his place pacified in the center of the image.
We are in 1925, the architect of la digue du Large completes his work in the port of Marseille, Mallet-Stevens finishes the villa Noailles and its large Squash Court.
We are in 2021, we hang the photo of the digue du Large in the squash court, the two structures juxtapose quite simply, one serving as a shelter for the other.
