Oriane Thomasson - Atlantis

Atlantis is an eclectic collection of photographs taken by Oriane Thomasson (FR) in various landscapes, interspersed with archival images. Through these visual correspondences, she constructs a photographic fiction of the legend of Atlantis.

The myth of Atlantis, as told by Plato in the Timaeus And the Critias The myth describes a magnificent, vast, and prosperous island, endowed with fertile lands and abundant natural resources. Its inhabitants, descendants of Poseidon, lived in a society organized in harmony with nature. Over time, their ambition drove them to expand their empire and exploit new resources, provoking the wrath of Zeus. As punishment, he unleashed a devastating cataclysm that engulfed the island beneath the waves. Even today, this myth continues to inspire archaeological theories and countless fictional narratives, and remains just as relevant today.

Through this free reinterpretation, Thomasson creates his own narrative, composed of a photographic series and an original science-fiction short story entitled "The Meteors." Together, they trace a before-and-after, the allure of a "lost paradise" and the traces of its collapse, revealing how evidence and invention together shape the writing of history. The work connects the known with the imagined—what remains and what is missing—and treats archaeology and history not as neutral points of reference, but as narrative practices whose documents become the very substance of the book's fiction.

Atlantis, just like Heaven , Thomasson's previous work This opens a space for the imagination where, from the shadow of submersion, new forms emerge. The series is built on cycles of disappearance and resurgence, between the mysterious and unsettling world of the depths where Atlantis now belongs, and the enchanting images of this paradise of abundance. The book is printed on four different types of paper, each corresponding to a specific category of images: a warm-toned paper for images evoking the island of Atlantis and its classical Greek landscape; a thin, translucent paper evoking disappearance and oblivion, used for the traces of a vanished Atlantean culture; a bright white paper for images conveying a state of transition, from sinking landscapes to a fish-headed man; and a coated paper printed with full bleed for underwater images, to emphasize the submersion of the once-prosperous city.