When marketing teams use the right stock photographs, they can generate all kinds of fantasy vacation dreams and idealized visions of a place. After googling Deauville, London-based photographer Hemya Moran realized this truth in the form of couples sipping cocktails by the pool, playing on the beach, and cuddling in hotel rooms.
In reaction to the way that the French tourist spot is portrayed online, Moran decided to develop a series of images, entitled Love in Deauville, to convey how a fictional romantic narrative can easily be concocted. In each photograph, an intimate scene suggests a passionate love between a couple, however, in reality the duo are perfect strangers.
“I reenacted these stock image scenes with men I approached in Deauville–complete strangers who somehow fit the description or demeanor of the men depicted in the Google Images I had seen,” she explains. “In each of these captured encounters there lies a tension between existing romantic imagery, reality, and reenactment.”
