EXPOSITION « VAL » DE LA PHOTOGRAPHE SANDRINE EXPILLY

Carving, tracing, shaping, modifying, organising, fragmenting, spalling, mastering (a little), taming (barely), holding back these indefatigable mountains and their vertiginous slopes that are always ready to tumble and change shape. Here, in the Romanche valley, because of its verticality, man is enveloped by and in the mountains, the pure acid greens of spring, or the darker greens of summer, give way to the reds and golds of autumn, then a more monochrome landscape in charcoal grey hues dresses and floods the valley, the shades of gneiss, amphibolites and other rocks vary from blue-green to black to a whole range of greys.

I grew up on "La petite route de l'Oisans". From Vizille, we took it to reach the very high mountains of the massif, back and forth by car, late fog in the valley, gigantic rock faces, factories, a rushing river, beautiful ridges. We rarely stopped, as few people do. The road from the Vizille toll booth to Rochetaillée crosses the narrow Romanche valley, also known as the Livet valley or the Romanche gorges. The road oscillates between the old-fashioned charm of the hydroelectric power stations and disused factories, the sublime yet rugged beauty of the gigantic mountains and the ugliness of the industrial remains and deserted shops, like so many traces of a rich industrial and human history.

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