Biographie
Manon Lanjouère was born in 1993. Trained at the photography school Les Gobelins, she exhibited in several festivals like Gacilly and Rencontres d’Arles, thanks to the publication in Fisheye magazine of her series « Bleu Glacé ». She has also taken part in the festivals Itinéraire des Photographes Voyageurs (Bordeaux), Les Nuits Photographiques de Pierrevert and Les Rencontres Photographiques du 10ème (Paris). She was the finalist for the Emerging Photographer Fund prize for the Bourse du Talent #71 and QPN prize, still with her « Bleu Glacé » series.
Présentation
"Bleu Glacé" is a cabinet of curiosities, a « scientific » study which synthetically reconstructs the Icelandic landscape.
If Iceland attracts so much attention, it is often because of its geological particularities. « Its landscapes are a formidable geology lesson, a mail-order catalogue of glacial and volcanic forms » writes Michel Tournier in his novel "Les Météores".
"Bleu Glacé" is a sort of catalogue of landscapes that an immobile or armchair traveller might imagine to find in Iceland.
The imagination forms the object that we are thinking of and that we desire, directly, in front of our eyes so we may take possession of it. The image thus created is a mental one, recreated in a studio. The object itself is absent, but all its qualities are there; the impression is present, as are the persons which, although they resemble human beings, are just persons, without intent.
Within the objects I create, one is free to see a waterfall, an iceberg, a plastic sheet or a block of polystyrene. The imitation is only partial, since only certain elements are reproduced. The images thus created seek to invoke this « primal ardour of water, wind, clouds, of colours projected in their purest states on the skies and horizons » that Samivel describes in his book "L’Or de l’Islande".
"Bleu Glacé" hopes to represent this mythical elsewhere, a land still unknown".