Meloncé
Bernard Faucon, “Michel Rêveur”
1966-1970, Fresson Process
I first stumbled across Bernard Faucon in the book, Color Photography put together by Gabriel Bauret. The great majority of the images placed throughout this book are Polaroid and film processed photographs. Once I saw the image “Idols et sacrifices,” I was hooked. From there I continued to research Faucon’s work. I chose the image, “Michel rêveur,” because it stayed true to the innocence and simple childhood aspects that his images carry. There was something odd with Faucon’s obsession to photograph young boys, but there was also something quite whimsical and pure with the images that this photographer captured such as “Michel rêveur.” The young boys that he photographed all share daydream gazes, as if their childhood and youth became somewhat symbolic to other idealistic ideas that most of the photographs imply.
Faucon’s work, and this image in particular capture subtle light textured hues of natural colors. The sun becomes the fixed essence of light quality. The grain of this photo is not only fixed on the young boy in the photograph but the Earthy tints and textures surrounding him. I love the way the child melts within his surroundings. It becomes as if he is placed perfectly within his element, melting naturally in the Earth around him. His positioning is free. His gaze is light and enchanted. It is almost as though the shadowing and shading on the indicated tree above is hugging his limbs. This image is about capturing the imaginative realms of childhood and digging inside a child’s mind without emptying out any internal forces. The natural aesthetics are enough to paint a vivid story.
“Michel Rêveur” by Meloncé
painted canvas in dirt and stone, gentle
young prince resting dreamily upon leaves, and flower stems, his gentle palm
beneath his head, the Earth becomes
his mother, wrapping him warmly into
a branched shaded nest, lost in daydreams
where he is a knight, a dragon slayer, Jack,
the one that traded a cow for magical
beans, chasing giants into unforeseen
realms. He is dirtied, muddied, covered
in twigs, a child, and only a child,
a boy, far from becoming a man,
falling deeper and deeper into
a daydream land.
