Denise Colomb: the Antilles
In 1948, Denise Colomb was invited to the Antilles by Aimé Césaire and there made a documentary report to mark the centenary of the abolition of slavery. Césaire, the poet from Martinique, was entranced by the humanism of her portraits from Indochina taken as part of her first documentary report in 1937 as she was discovering her passion for photography. Denise Colomb would continue to photograph not only the wonders of the islands and the Creole people, but also the reality of that society until 1958. Indeed the Antilles inspired her to point out the contrasts: "Stunning land of lovely belles, enchanting climate, easy living, song and dance, lazy days, coconut tree-lined beaches... All these clichés have some truth to them (...) They sing and dance, but there is misery there nonetheless." [literal translation]
