Julia from Cooker

"L'Heure bleue is a photographic series composed of five portraits of teenage girls. These young girls, from the region of Deauville and Trouville-sur-Mer, are between 12 and 15 years old. They are photographed in the Strassburger villa in Deauville with a light inspired by the masters of the Flemish Golden Age. I chose to photograph young girls because I have been very intrigued by their evolution in our society for some time. They live in a world of adults where it is difficult for them to find a place, no longer being children but not yet women. Of Dutch origin by my father, I grew up observing with great interest the paintings of the great Flemish painters, such as Vermeer or Rembrandt. Their light has always fascinated me because it gives off something very soft and mysterious at the same time. This is what I tried to reproduce in these photographs. I used this light (giving the illusion of daylight coming from a window) to create an ambiguity on the faces of these young girls as to their age. Usually used to paint portraits of mature women, this light gives them an enigmatic expression and creates a certain confusion accentuating the "woman-child" mystery. "