Portrait d’un chien jaune, 2012

“ I had a special affection for one sailor, a ‘Yellow Dog’ aircraft director, whom I watched working for hours onboard the Jeanne d’Arc.
Such amazing precision!
He also reminded me of the puppets of my childhood, gesturing endlessly.”

An aircraft director is an operator, often a senior officer, who guides take-offs and landings on aircraft carriers. Its French moniker ‘chien jaune’ – yellow dog – comes from the colour of the visibility vests used during operations, and from the fact that an aircraft director must bark to be heard above the noise of the engines and the hissing of jets.

The Portrait of an Aircraft Director is a diptych: the left panel shows gloves in black and white photographed using an 8x10 camera. The large scale and the precise high quality of the image transport us into the texture of the leather, its grain merging with the grain of the film.

With these large gloves, the aircraft director uses a host of signs and gestures, directing the aircraft pilots to take-off and land on the deck of the carrier.
The right panel is a stop-motion video. On the screen, you can see the movements made by the aircraft director to guide the pilots.

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