Déborah Farnault, With All Our Might

California, the world’s fifth largest economy, is on the front lines of global warming. The heat waves, which have been raging there for several years, are not simple temporary droughts; they are indeed the result of a progressive desertification of the region. Just outside Los Angeles, the Californian desert has become the unlikely crossroads of one of the richest agricultural regions in the United States and a marginal economy, where poverty, crime and drugs are endemic.

Using a topographical approach, Franco-American photographer and director Déborah Farnault presents images stripped of artifice: a few silent interiors, tired faces and the immensity of arid landscapes. ‘With All Our Might’ addresses notions of nostalgia, alienation and a romance that crumbles under the relentless light of the Californian desert.