Isabelle Besson has been taking photographs since her teens and trained at professional schools. She started out with political reportage before covering armed conflicts, notably in the Balkans in the 1990s. In recent years she has also been sharing her nature photography.
Her images have been shown in many galleries in France and abroad, including in Japan, South Korea, Rome, Arles and Paris.
Her series was born from a train journey across Kerala (India), from north to south. Isabelle Besson doesn't photograph a destination but a state: that of time stretching out, between waiting and contemplation, rocked by the steady rhythm of the rails. Fragments of life captured in this interval, like the heartbeats of a closed world.
Time suspended
The heat wraps around us,
voices rise from everywhere,
a hubbub piercing the air,
colours, smells, spices,
suddenly a whistle, we're off,
on a journey across Kerala.
Time is no longer measured,
nor even counted, it stretches,
somewhere between North and South,
fragments of life are lived,
a closed world where each moment appears like a heartbeat,
a space of transition where waiting and contemplation intertwine,
rocked by the steady rhythm of the rails.
The photographs come to life in this interval,
they tell not of a destination but of a state,
that of time suspended.
Isabelle Besson
Her series « Time suspended » is shown in the exhibition Crossed Perspectives #2: Telling the World, at the Mendi Zolan cultural venue (Hendaye), from 16 September to 10 October 2026. Free entry.
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