ENTRY DESCRIPTION
Diving Platform, Lake Geneva, Switzerland

This photograph is part of my My ‘Fragments of Lakes’ project.
This project has started on the shores of Lake Geneva in 1995. It depics the esthetic value of the man-made objects or structures built on the lake shores and the way they pertain to the landscapes.

Over time, the traces left by humans above the water deeply affect the perception of the landscape one can have. Once they are no longer in use, these elements are rarely taken to pieces but rather left abandoned.
Slowly, the man-made structures become the indicators of the passing time until they have totally disappeared.
To me, these objects are more constructive elements than disruptive ones. This ‘unwitting esthetics’ contributes unintentionally to the beauty of the lakes shores.

But beyond the reasons why these constructions were built, they affect drastically the subjective eye. They redefine the shape of the shores, they create scale effect and become the landscape in itself. Strangely enough, they steer the spectators not to see them anymore while gazing at the waterscapes.

This continuous project has been built in many places in Europe and in Japan where the Lake Biwa has become an important place of inspiration for many years.

AUTHOR
Olivier Robert is a professional photographer and landscape architect sharing his life between Europe and Japan. Initiated very early into the world of photography and dark room, he got his first camera at the age of 15. At that time, he also discovered Asia. This intense experience has drastically influenced his way of life and his vision of the world. From then on, photography and Asian philosophy will be closely linked.

In 1994, he graduated from the Institute of Landscape Architecture in Belgium and left his native country for Switzerland. As he arrived in the Lake Geneva region in 1995, he started a photographic work about the lake. After some years, this work has become a personal project based on a deep fascination of the photographer for this lake. This project is still continuing 20 years after and has pushed him into visiting many other lakes in the world. Since 2004, he has devoted his work almost exclusively to landscapes and waterscapes using mainly long exposures.
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For his continuous projects as well as family reasons, he often gets thoroughly across Japan looking for specific landmarks which convey timelessness, simplicity and sometimes mystery.
This approach has led him to the most remote places of the archipelago, through mountains, temples and shrines about which he has also carried out a photographic project on Buddhist statuary and sacred art for years.

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