• Default
  • Blue
  • Green
  • Red
  • Black
myExtraContent1 (only enabled when style-switcher is on)
myExtraContent2 (only enabled when clock bar is on)
myExtraContent5 (reserved for mega-menu navigation option)
myExtraContent7
myExtraContent8 (only enabled when header search bar is on)
myExtraContent9
myExtraContent10 (used for the content of a second sidebar container)

Welcome Back to Mars


WelcomeToMars_1400px_C
Welcome to Mars

My Good Fellow Americans, I have to write that I am proud to be one of you, even if from recent history. I could not have written that when that photograph was shot, in 2005, when it quickly became the icon of my series Life on Mars, a documentary work of the craziness of the Bush era (the same Bush who by now we look to as a Statesman, compared to you know who), American politics, and caricatural aspects of American culture seen from an unforgiving European perspective.

Today this photograph should be re-baptised in a more suiting title
Welcome Back to Mars. Mars, the God of war. Because whether we have declared war or not, we are obviously at war, and with Russia of all countries. But this time we are on the good side, and boy, what a good side that is! Even Hitler could not unite the good part of the world against him, as fast as Putin did. I grew up during the cold war, and in France, not all that far from the demarcation line, even if the only connection we had with the other side of the iron curtain, was the Mistral, that cold wind that sweeps the Rhône Valley a bit too often, and comes all the way from the Oural Mountains. Much later we had the radioactive cloud from Chernobyl as well, which should have taught us to be more guarded against Russia. I did though, started my photographic journey and subsequent career, on a Russian cruise liner in 1972, but that is a long story, mostly involving France's long Socialist flirt.

During all my youth, and until these past weeks, as maybe many of you, I never felt threatened by Russia. They were just irrelevant, possibly charming, cute and certainly annoying at times, but impossible to take seriously. Hence the general wonder whether NATO served any purpose. Nobody wonders about that anymore, more than covid, Putin's madness has re-shaped the world, and under glorious American leadership.

President Biden said during the recent State of the Union, that
never had he envisioned a brighter future for this Country. "Folks," if I may, I believe that is true. Before long Putin will be dead or jailed, and it then will only be a matter of time, before the West extends all the way to Vladivostok. What a different world then, so much more peaceful, even if not totally, under American hegemony like never before.

In the meantime, the situation cannot end fast enough, especially for these poor Ukrainians whose stamina and uplifting spirit is irresistibly inspiring. They are on the real frontline, and I'd like to make a toast to their courage and selflessness. Another toast will be to Putin's certain demise. One sure and comforting thing, is that he is agonizing, day and night, wondering who will come kill him.



ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH :

Welcome to Mars

This was shot in the summer of 2005, on Mars, the only Mars there is on Earth, in Pennsylvania. I was engaged then in a rabid outcry against the War in Iraq, had documented many protests against it, and key moments of American politics in the previous 12 years.

All that work became unified under the title
Life on Mars, because of this photograph that symbolized the kitsch gentleness which is in the American DNA, but also hides an odd personality disorder. That disorder often manifests itself in war mongering and a sense of entitlement that we Europeans don't recognize in us, even if Americans do look like us, mostly. This series therefore look at Americans as if they were extra terrestrials, a sort of Invaders if you will (you know, the TV series). Of course if extra terrestrials, Americans must be from Mars, since it is one of the biggest planets, is green like the Dollar, and is the God of War.



Comments
myExtraContent13
myExtraContent15