SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Over the past forty years, photographer Rachel Cobb has regularly visited and, at times, lived in Provence, where she experienced firsthand what it is like to endure the mistral, the fierce wind that funnels down the Rhône Valley, occasionally gusting to hurricane strength. No one who spends time in the region can escape it. It is everywhere, yet always unseen.
Photographing the impact of this relentless force of nature on life in Provence has been Cobb's mission for the last fifteen years. As she became sensitive to the rhythms and effects of the mistral, she realized it was not just a weather phenomenon, it was an integral part of the fabric of Provençal life, impacting its architecture, agriculture, landscape and culture. Houses have few or no windows on the northwest, windward side and the main entrance on the southern, sheltered side. Rows of trees lining fields create windbreaks to shield crops. Artists have long been drawn to the area for the clear skies that follow a mistral.
How do you photograph wind? With images of a leaf caught in flight, a bride tangled in her veil, spider webs oriented to withstand the wind, and grapes lashed by powerful gusts ("You can taste the wine better when there's a mistral," a winemaker says), Cobb's artfully composed photographs make us feel the wind. Over ninety images from this long-term project documenting the "devil mistral" published this month in Cobb's critically acclaimed first monograph:
MISTRAL: The Legendary Wind of Provence (Damiani, November 2018). Companion exhibitions of large scale prints drawn from the series are on view at The Gallery at Leica in San Francisco (currently on view through January 31, 2019) and the Gail Severn Gallery in Ketchum, Idaho (on view December 20 through February 2, 2019).
The book includes an introduction by Bill Buford and a personal essay by Cobb where she reflects on how she became enraptured by wind and her challenges of trying to photograph the illusive mistral. She describes pursuing a shepherd on a nearby mountain whose sheep were scattered by the wind, the sound of their bells dancing away.
Mistral also features an excerpt from Paul Auster's Winter Journal about the months he spent enduring "the violence of the mistrals" in Provence. In addition, Cobb draws from the writings of Émile Zola, Jean Giono, Frédéric Mistral, Lawrence Durrell, and others whose work references the mistral. The book is designed by Yolanda Cuomo, a recipient of a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors, two Infinity Awards from the International Center of Photography, as well as other awards and honors.
Rachel Cobb has exhibited her photographs in solo and group shows at numerous venues, including the Miami Museum of Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Parrish Art Museum, and Visa Pour l'Image in Perpignan, France among others. Her award-winning work covering social issues, news, and feature stories has been widely published in newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Time, Rolling Stone, and in books including Bosnia 1992-1995, Prada Marfa, and Modern Photographs: The Machine, The Body and The City. Mistral is Cobb's first monograph. Rachel Cobb lives in New York City. www.rachelcobb.com
Bill Buford is the acclaimed founding editor and publisher of Granta, a staff writer and former fiction editor of The New Yorker, and author of Heat, Iconic Dishes (with Daniel Boulud), and Among the Thugs. He lived for five years in Lyon, France directly in the mistral's path. His forthcoming book Dirt, about training to be a French chef in Lyon, will be published by Knopf.
