Political Landscapes, France, 2007
The French presidential campaign brings about a lot of electoral rallies where medias, candidates and campaigners meet and exchange. The candidates expose their program, find a political line, integrate catchphrases and gestures that will be repeated throughout the whole campaign. During this short time they develop a public image that has been well thought out. Besides words and attitudes, places, dates and staging are politically significant : a gymnasium in Beauvais for far-left candidate Arlette Laguiller, the Paris Gymnasium Japy for ephemeral candidate Jean-Pierre Chevènement, the Lilles convention center for centrist candidate François Bayrou.
Each time a candidate meets the campaigners, the event is meticulously staged in an almost theatrical way : Ségolène Royal places herself in the middle of the stage, François Bayrou is during his speech at the launch of the campaign surrounded by campaigners and local elected representatives who stand up on a platform, conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy stands alone on the stage with big screens. The purpose of “Political landscapes” project is to study the different staging of presidential campaign. Working with a full frame camera ; photographing the complex “landscapes” formed by the candidates, the campaigners and the lightings ; refusing the too much used close up ; all of that serves the images revealing the way the candidates present themselves, the places where they do that and the way they are perceived. Finally, this work speaks about the differences of territories and funds that have supported each candidate during the 2007 presidential campaign.
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