Basque Heartland, 1990
In 1990, Anne Rearick left the East Coast of the United States to spend a year photographing the daily life of Iparralde, in the French Basque Country.
During this year, she sought to capture moments of purity and authenticity.
Here, time seems to have stood still; the images underline the distance from the upheaval of modern life, the tumult of the city. They express a form of richness; the richness of an existence that follows the rhythm of nature, which takes root in the earth.
When taken with tenderness and sincerity, there is something deeply animated about photography, which tells us both that “it was” and that these images take us back to the past. In a region that seeks to preserve its own culture, this photographic approach, served by a staging without artifice, by subtle vibrations of light, is totally accurate.
Nothing spectacular, just the love of a country and its people that Anne Rearick met, one day, so far away from America.