The Eriskay Connection

Atlantis is an eclectic collection of photographs taken by Oriane Thomasson (FR) across various landscapes, interwoven with archival images. Through these visual correspondences, she constructs a photographic fiction of the legend of Atlantis.

The myth of Atlantis, as recounted by Plato in Timaeus and Critias, describes a magnificent, vast, and prosperous island blessed with fertile land and abundant natural resources. Its inhabitants, descendants of Poseidon, lived in a society organised in harmony with nature. Over time, their ambition drove them to expand their empire and exploit new resources, provoking the wrath of Zeus. As punishment, he unleashed a devastating cataclysm that submerged the island beneath the waves. To this day, the myth continues to inspire archaeological theories and countless fictional narratives, and proves to be just as relevant today.

Through this free reinterpretation, Thomasson creates her own narrative, composed of a photographic series and an original science fiction short story titled ‘The Meteors’. Together they trace a before-and-after, the allure of a ‘lost paradise’ and the marks of its collapse, revealing how evidence and invention together shape the writing of history. The work bridges what is known and what is imagined – what remains and what is missing – and treats archaeology and history not as neutral repositories but as story-making practices whose documents become material for the book’s fiction.

Atlantis, just like Thomasson’s previous book Paradis, opens up a space for the imagination, where, from the shadow of submersion, new forms emerge. The series is built on cycles of disappearance and resurgence. Between the mysterious, unsettling world of the depths where Atlantis now belongs, and the enchanting images of this paradise of abundance. The book is printed on four different types of paper, each corresponding to a specific category of image: a warm-toned paper for images evoking the island of Atlantis and its classical Greek landscape; a thin, translucent paper referencing disappearance and oblivion, used for traces of a lost Atlantean culture; a bright white paper for images that convey a state of transition, from sinking landscapes to a man with a fish head; and a coated paper printed full-bleed for underwater imagery, to emphasise the submersion of the once-prosperous city.