The USA, for the one who has not been there, pre-exists as a formatted memory. American culture has been spread far above the USA borders and movies or TV images are deeply printed in our mind. In my case, it might be worse, probably because I have been exposed heavily to books, movies, photography and music from the “new world”. Here starts the Discount Fuel project. Two thousands miles of ride in the south, one camera and the idea to gather visual prints of what can actually be seen in the USA. Four days to wipe out thirty years of exposure to American culture, four days to rework, reshape my vision of USA.
I drove from deep south Lousianna, the Cajun county of Breaux Bridge, I got lost in the Mississipi delta and found my way through the pine forests of north Lousianna. Then I seeked the dying light of sunset, riding west, passing Paris, Texas, and ending in Dallas through the flat green ranches Bonham county. I captured what I have seen, not what I should have seen or what I was expecting to see. I stopped along the way, documenting America, at least this part of America.
I made two decision for this project; the first is the choice of the 6×6 square medium format to avoid compromise on the composition. It is square, not a balancing choice of landscape either portrait. And then, a choice of film type; that would be colour, simply because of the amazing lights of October which gives a light blue tone to the atmosphere tending to yellow with the sunset. From the editing of the project, remain eighteen photographs shown on the virtual wall of BOP gallery. I’ve selected the pictures as a sequence of feelings that replaced step by step my existing memories.