Overlook - Florent Braquart

Overlook – Florent Braquart

Raglan attracts travellers from all around the world. When I first journeyed from France to New-Zealand in 2019, I arrived with Romantic ideas of this country as a place where the nature was untouched, a place of pristine landscapes and harmonious communities.

Romantic aesthetics, with its emphasis on emotional responses, have the power to forge perceptions of places. I slowly became aware of the role of this aesthetic in colonial propaganda and contemporary tourism. The Romantic influenced my previous work and ideas, and I felt the need to evolve my artistic practice.

Presenting the Raglan coastline through contemporary photography’s Romantic aesthetics, Overlook allegorises this framing through the complicated reality of place. Scale, space, and colours allow us to step back, to think of the landscape as a mindset, and reflect on our role in these places.

As viewers, we know that the colour of the sand has been altered, hinting that what we see is a constructed image. But because we know that the sand is not in reality pink, does it mean that, in real life, we are able to really see the true colour of the sand? When we open our eyes, do we really see what lies before us? Or do we only look out for what confirms our inner fantasies?