In 1970, at the age of 6, Emmelene Landon left Australia with her family by ship over the Pacific from Sydney to Tokyo to Nahodka. They then crossed over the Soviet Union on the Trans Siberian Railway and stopped for three years in England before living five years in New York, and settling 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 35500-ton container ship, on a round-the-world line. She wrote Le Tour du monde en porte-conteneurs, published by Gallimard in 2003. This trip confirmed her fascination for all things maritime; the theme is present in her work as a writer, painter, radio producer and videast. Emmelene Landon was camera operator on her husband Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens’s two films, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Sarthe, 2009, and Editeur, 2017. Among the videos she 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, 2006 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. In 2017, La Baie de la Rencontre was published by Gallimard. Marie-Galante will be published by Gallimard in October 2018. Emmelene Landon was elected a member of the writers of the French Navy, following in the footsteps of Jean Rolin and Simon Leys.
