Biography
In 1970, at the age of 6, Emmelene Landon left Australia with her family on the Marco Polo across the Pacific from Sydney to Yokahama and then to Nahodka on a Russian ship. They traversed the Soviet Union on the Trans Siberian Railway, spending three years in England before living five years in New York, and settled in France in 1979. She studied painting under Leonardo Cremonini at the Paris School of Fine Arts, and took the Trans Siberian again in 1988 to write and paint in China. In 2001, she boarded the Manet, a 35,500 ton container ship, on a round-the-world route. She wrote Le Tour du monde en porte-conteneurs, published by Gallimard, in 2003. This trip solidified her fascination for all things maritime; this theme is present in her work as a writer, painter, radio producer and video maker. Emmelene Landon was camera operator on her husband Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens’s two films, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Sarthe, 2009, and Éditeur, 2017. Among the videos she has directed: Australie mère et fille, 2004, Le Fantastique Voyage du conteneur rouge, 2005, I don’t want to miss a thing, 2012. She continues to paint and exhibit her work internationally. In 2006, Susanne, Peintures de Susanne Hay, and in 2007, Le Voyage à Vladivostok, were published by Léo Scheer. La Tache aveugle, 2010, and Portrait(s) de George, 2014, were published by Actes Sud. La Baie de la Rencontre, 2017, and Marie-Galante, 2018, are published by Gallimard.
Emmelene Landon was elected a member of the French Naval writers, in the footsteps of Simon Leys and Jean Rolin.
