Antix at the feet of #Arunachala 🐜

At The Table I remember certain tables long after the meals served upon them have been forgotten. Almost thirty-five years have passed since I found myself sitting at one in Darjeeling, in the foothills of the Himalayas. I had travelled there for a few days' respite from the heat and humidity of…

Ella's mother, Marie Dagmar Maillart, née Kliim, was an independent and athletic Danish woman who took her to the mountains every Sunday to ski ... considered at the time as an English eccentricity! #Photography #Switzerland #Skiing #EllaMaillart #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

Ella Maillart, Age 12, 1915. "Every year on the 22nd December the family went to the Bernese Oberland; while my parents were climbing in the hills, I spent many hours alone playing on the practice slope ..." /1 #Photography #Switzerland #Skiing #EllaMaillart #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"In Paris, Alain Gerbault introduced Ella to his publisher, Charles Fasquelle, who asked: 'Are you going to write something about your stay there?' 'Oh, no!' I replied, 'I cannot write.'" /1 #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #USSR #Books #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"Back in Moscow, where winter was beginning, letters from Geneva informed me father was ill and wanted to see me. I was not keen to go home but I had no other strong desire of my own. The old problem, the old ghost, raised its head again: What could I do?" #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #Moscow

'Pechersk Lavra Monastery, Kyiv, Ukraine', Ella Maillart, 1930. In June 2026, it was significantly damaged in what Ukrainian President Zelensky called "one of the biggest Russian crimes against Christian culture today." #Photography #EllaMaillart #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

Potemkin Stairs, Odessa, Ukraine, Ella Maillart, 1930 "I left for Odessa by steamer - steerage again and found it exciting to be travelling alone. I visited the film studios, collecting more data for my book." #Photography #EllaMaillart #Ukraine #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

'Rostov-on-Don, Russia', Ella Maillart, 1930 "You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown that reveals you with yourself." #Photography #BlackAndWhite #EllaMaillart #Russia #Caucasus #Asia #Travel #Adventure #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

'A village in Svanetia, the Russian province south of the Caucasus', Ella Maillart, 1930 "At last I could admire these watch-towers peculiar to Svanetia - flanking every hut or house, very high, square-built of unmortared stones." #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #Caucasus #Svanetia

"In the central range of the Caucasus - a chain 600 miles long stretching from the Caspian to the Black Sea - the only existing passes are never below 9,000 feet." - Cruises and Caravans #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #USSR #Caucasus #Travel #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"I wished to escape from Moscow where I'd begun to notice the dust, the rampant shabbiness, the summer heat. How could I travel in the country and get to know the peasants, the backbone of the land?" 1/ #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #Moscow #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

'Woman Driver Of Broken Down Russian Ford Van', Moscow, Ella Maillart, 1930 "The photographer is supertourist, an extension of the anthropologist, visiting natives and bringing back news of their exotic doings and strange gear ..." 1/ #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #Moscow #Travel #Adventure

"Then they ask me if the worker is happy in my country, a question that is posed constantly. When it comes to an answer, I am hardly an expert. I say the following: ..." - Parmi La Jeunesse Russe #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #Moscow #Books #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"Pudovkin was then busy on his 'Life Is Beautiful': he told me that artistes chosen out of ordinary life were, as a rule, better than professional ones." - Caravans and Cruises #Photography #Travel #Adventure #EllaMaillart #Pudovkin #Russia #USSR #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

Director Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1930 "Without difficulty I was allowed to accompany producers and, whether in studios or in the open, I saw how simple were their means, and how resourcefully they obtained their wonderful truthfulness of acting." #Photography #EllaMaillart #Moscow #Russia #EastCoastKin

"At the Sovinko I spent many hours in a tiny projection-room [with Vsevolod Pudovkin]. By then I had 'viewed' many wonderful places and met camera-men back from frozen Kamchatka, scorched Turkestan, wind-swept Mongolia or wooded Siberia." #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #USSR #Moscow #Pudovkin

"I wanted to join an athletic club - not the smart Dynama where foreigners went, but one where I could meet ordinary Russians. Thus I became a member of the Pishiviki or Alimentation Workers' Club." #Photography #EllaMaillart #Switzerland #Russia #USSR #Rowing #BlackAndWhite #PhotographersOfBlueSky

"Leather shortage. Everyone wants boots. Of the USSR's 160 million inhabitants, approximately 120 million are peasants. ... Another era brings with it new means, new needs: today they have to outfit an entire continent in boots." - Parmi La Jeunesse Russe #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #Moscow

Women at work in a wooden ski factory, Moscow, 1930 "In what light do the men see the women workers amongst them? Do they show them animosity? Indulgence?" - Parmi La Jeunesse Russe #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #Moscow #Women #Equality #Feminism #Skiing #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

Ostozhenka Street where Ella stayed. "The rent will be 50 roubles a month; when her [Leo Tolstoy's daughter-in-law's] niece returns, they will give me the sofa in the dining room for half that price." - Parmi La Jeunesse Russe #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"I particularly want to understand the new aspirations of young people, those in their twenties, those who did not know the old world, those for whom the new state seems to have been built." - Parmi La Jeunesse Russe #Photography #EllaMaillart #Moscow #Russia #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"From the moment you arrive at the central station, there's scarcity: long queues at the left-luggage office, overcrowded or exorbitantly priced hotels, a pale capital teeming with vagrants, where nothing good happens except in the midst of chaos ..." #EllaMaillart #Photography #Russia #Moscow

Strangely, Ella never mentions that her Uncle Robert had lived and worked in Russia from 1912, losing his entire fortune following the 1917 Communist Revolution and returning in debt with his three children to Switzerland. #Photography #EllaMaillart #Russia #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"The next day I felt like taking my chances and went to the consulate of the Union of Soviet and Socialist Republics to fill out my request for a visa.' - Parmi La Jeunesse Russe (Among The Russian Youth), 1932 #Photography #Travel #EllaMaillart #Russia #Moscow #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"I am thrilled because I will be able to make a dream come true, one that I have been nursing for the last three years: to spend a month in Moscow." Letter to her father, Paul Maillart, 2 May 1930 #Photography #Travel #EllaMaillart #Russia #Moscow #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

Jack & Charmian London, 1916 "When in Berlin, Ella Maillart met Charmian London (the widow of American author Jack London), who gifted her $50 to go to Moscow in 1930." #Photography #Travel #Adventure #EllaMaillart #Russia #Moscow #Books #Cinema #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

Ella Maillart moved to Berlin in 1929 and the silent film industry. She worked as a sports understudy and actress in popular German 'mountain movies' (Bergfilme). Here she met Russian émigrés which sparked her broader interest in Soviet cinema. youtube.com/shorts/XTwA2... #EllaMaillart #Berlin

Hermine de Saussure's motherhood put an end to their sailing plans. Deprived of her shipowner and captain, Ella Maillart had no choice but to set off alone, first to Russia, then across the roads of Asia. Ella Maillart, Geneva, 1926 #Photography #EllaMaillart #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

The book 'Sois Femme Et Tais-Toi (Be A Woman and Shut Up)', 2026 by Nina Almberg and Arianna Melone is a feminist look at the life of Delphine Seyrig and her mother, Hermine de Saussure. #Photography #EllaMaillart #HermineDeSaussure #DelphineSeyrig #Books #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

While reading old letters, Delphine discovered her mother had been a ship's captain, dreaming of sailing around the world with her friend Ella Maillart. Realising what had prevented her from doing so, she picked up a camera and directed 'Be Beautiful and Shut Up' (1981). #EllaMaillart #Photography

"I haven't had much luck in my life because always wanting to be something significant I've only ever been on the sidelines or as an amateur." - 'Anonymous', Hermine de Saussure, 1973 www.rts.ch/info/culture... #Photography #EllaMaillart #Miette #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

On April 10, 1932, Hermine de Saussure and Henri Seyrig became parents in Beirut to famous French actress Delphine Seyrig (Day of The Jackal, Last Year at Marienbad). #Photography #EllaMaillart #HermineDeSaussure #HenriSeyrig #DelphineSeyrig #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

In December 1930, Hermine married Henri Seyrig, Director General of Antiquities for Syria and Lebanon. He welcomed her son, Francis, whom he named after himself and raised as his own. #Photography #EllaMaillart #HermineDeSaussure #HenriSeyrig #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

Upon returning from her abandoned expedition, Hermine bought a small house in the woods in Charente-Maritime (France), started raising chickens, and lived the life of a farmer. #Photography #EllaMaillart #HermineDeSaussure #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

But after covering 900 miles in the Atlantic, the project came to an abrupt halt: Hermine de Saussure was pregnant. Their adventure at sea came to an abrupt end. #Photography #Adventure #Sailing #EllaMaillart #HermineDeSaussure #Atlantic #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"At last we were ready [to cross the Atlantic]. The last letter home had gone, giving Vigo, Spain, c/o French Consul as our next address. On the first of September 1926 we left our anchorage." - Gypsy Afloat, Ella Maillart #Photography #Sailing #EllaMaillart #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

24 Jul - 27 Sep 2026 Exhibition in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland dedicated to Ella Maillart and Hermine de Saussure, pioneers of 20th-century navigation. www.la-tour-de-peilz.ch/agenda-boela... #Photography #Adventure #Sailing #EllaMaillart #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"She was lovely, built for the deep seas, with her good beam, straight stem and counter stern, the elegant flush-deco ending with a nice sheer towards the bowspit. Her cutter rig with its very long boom was too heavy so we altered her into a yawl." - Gypsy Afloat, Ella Maillart, 1942 #EllaMaillart

Hermine acquired a 16 m. long pilot cutter, Atalante, in Groix and Ella fitted it out for their trans-Atlantic journey in Lorient. "With such a plan so nearly ripe, the humdrum life around us did not matter during the next winter." - 'Gypsy Afloat', Ella Maillart, 1942 #Photography #EllaMaillart

"I wonder what we should call our boat: if it's a big lumbering one 'Canargo', if it's a beautiful boat 'Atalante', if the boat is fast 'L'Argo', what do you think? Write to me quickly, Miette" Correspondence between Ella Maillart and Hermine de Saussure, 1925 #Photography #EllaMaillart

Ella and Alain, 1923 "An aviator during the Great War, he and three of his companions had decided to reach the Pacific and abandon forever a continent where such wars were possible. His friends had been killed, but he had not given up on his plan; he was determined to leave alone." #EllaMaillart

Ella Maillart and Hermine de Saussure met Gerbault in Cannes while he was preparing the 'Firecrest' to cross the Atlantic solo. He ignited their ambition to emulate his achievement and start a nomadic life on their boat. #Photography #Adventure #Sailing #EllaMaillart #Atlantic #EastCoastKin

The 'Bonita' expedition was so successful that Ella and Miette decided to "buy our dream ship. We would sail to New York, then across Panama to the South Seas, where we would make our lives." - Gypsy Afloat', Ella Maillart, 1942. #Photography #EllaMaillart #Adventure #Travel #Sailing #EastCoastKin

However, in 1926 Marthe Oulié defended her doctoral dissertation and her thesis was published by Felix Alcan Books as 'Animals In Pre-Hellenic Crete Painting'. #Photography #Archaeology #Sailing #Adventure #Crete #Greece #EllaMaillart #MartheOulie #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

Marthe Oulié was tolerated only reluctantly as an archaeologist by the École française d’Athènes (EFA). On 11 November 1925, she sent her excavation reports to the director who refused to publish them. 🥵 #Photography #Archaeology #Crete #Greece #EllaMaillart #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

The excavation at Malia lasted from late July until early September 1925. A sad fate, however was reserved for Bonita in December (see Alt-text). #Photography #Archaeology #Archaeologist #Sailing #Travel #Adventure #Crete #Greece #EllaMaillart #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"The cruise was a success, in spite of too heavy a breeze in the South Adriatic which broke our gaff ... Our decision was confirmed: we would leave Bonita to be sold in Greece." - 'Gypsy Afloat', Ella Maillart #Photography #Travel #EllaMaillart #Sailing #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin #ECK

'A Cretan mother and four children photographed on stone ruins during the archaeological excavation at Malia', Mariel Jean-Brunhes, 1925 #Photography #Archaeology #Archaeologist #Sailing #Travel #Adventure #Crete #Greece #EllaMaillart #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

They excavated at the islet of Afendis Christos, 3 km west of the Palace of Malia and 200 m offshore, which yielded pithos and earth burials dated to the Middle Minoan and Geometric periods. #Photography #Archaeology #Archaeologist #Crete #Greece #EllaMaillart #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin