Toward the end of 1913, on the eve of the Second World War, a young Danish aristocrat, Karen Dinesen, joins her Swedish fiancé, Baron Bror von Blixen, in British East Africa (now Kenya). The young couple, having just acquired a coffee plantation thanks to a family inheritance, dreams of making a fortune in Africa. A new life, full of hope, is taking shape.
Karen Blixen is 28 years old and has so far led a well-ordered life between Copenhagen, Paris, and Rome, where she was pursuing studies in art. She is passionate about painting and literature. An original and curious personality, she has great imagination and let herself easily fall to the power of dreams.
When she arrives in Africa, an immense world - much vaster, more beautiful, and more complex than she could ever have imagined - suddenly presents itself before her, revealing ever-new perspectives. As if by magic, her dreams begin to take shape, and her soul is deeply moved.
But the ecstasy of the early days of discovery and revelation does not last. Unwillingly Karen Blixen finds herself the moving heroine of a life growing ever harsher and more tragic. Her seventeen years in East Africa are marked by illness (syphilis), war, betrayal, the collapse of her marriage, bankruptcy, solitude, grief and sorrow. In 1931 she is forced to return penniless to her mother’s home in Denmark. Karen Blixen is 46 and she has lost nearly everything. Her world shrinks, and she sinks into the depths of despair.
However, over the course of long gloomy days, her pain subtly transforms into creative energy. Inspired by the luminous, majestic memory of the African landscapes and guided by her remarkable gift for storytelling, she picks up her pen and begins to write. Now a mature woman, she weaves the fabric of her new incarnation: Karen Blixen, the writer.
Despite many rejections from publishers, she persists and refuses to give up. Wasn’t Karen Blixen always a strong-willed woman? The Baroness transforms into a true lioness! Out of Africa becomes a real success and launches her career as a writer.
This photography series celebrates the radiant memory of the natural world in Africa that so deeply inspired, nourished, soothed and shaped the literary figure of Karen Blixen as we know her today.
For this project, Catherine, travelled several times to Kenya and Tanzania. This work is a conversation with Karen Blixen, drawing on excerpts from her literary writings.