PRESS KITSylvie Grumbach

sylvie.grumbach@2e-bureau.comMarie-Laure Girardon m.girardon@2e-bureau.com

tel +33 1 42 33 93 18

Pre s s Con t a c t s

2e B U R E A U

www.2e-bureau.com

www.festivalphoto-lagacilly.com from June 1st to September 30th, 2012

9th

PEUPLES& NATURE

1992-2012Gilles BassignacBayard Nature & Territories / Emmanuel BoitierPeter BialobrzeskiJulio BittencourtJuan Manuel Castro PrietoCédric DelsauxRaymond DepardonRobert DoisneauMarc FerrezStuart FranklinAnouk GarciaHeidi & Hans-Jurgen KochAndreï KamenevPictures Without Borders AssociationJosé MedeirosReuters AgencyTyba AgencyJean-Michel TurpinPierre de Vallombreuse

p. 6

p. 12

p. 13

p. 7

p. 6

p. 11

p. 7

p. 8

p. 9

p. 4

p. 8

p. 5

p. 10

p. 11

p. 13

p. 4

p. 12

p. 5

p. 12

p. 10

Exhibitions

p. 1

JUNE 1st

to SEPTEMBER 30th,

Editorial Jacques RocherMayor of La Gacilly

Photo Festival, Boon for the image of the regions of La Gacilly, le Morbihan and Brittany

La Gacilly can be proud to have become an important venue for photography: all the specialists of the genre have exhibited or are exhibiting here. The best work in the profession can be seen here, to the great satisfaction not only of aficionados, but also of a general audience seeking entertainment and food for thought. Photojournalism is indeed an effective means to decipher the world before us.In becoming aware of the serious problems threatening our planet, in becoming familiar with people who live in harmony with nature and also with the megapoles springing up around the world, our town proves that it can combine curiosity with the desire to understand other cultures.

1. Rio + 20 in La GacillyThis year Brazil will be given the place of honour. The country is at once a continent, an emerging power we will now have to take into consideration and also a unique land, considering the great wealth of its Amazon. This is our way of saluting the United Nations Earth Summit taking place in Rio this June.

2. International Artists for a planetary visionRaymond Depardon, Stuart Franklin, Pierre de Vallombreuse, Heidi et Hans Jurgen Koch, Cédric Delsaux, Anouk Garcia, Peter Bialobrzeski,… through their talent and diverse viewpoints, all these photographers lead us by emotion to an understanding of what is at stake in our relationship with the planet.

3. Homage to Robert Doisneau, master of humanist photographyRobert Doisneau is not unknown; his pictures of everyday life in Paris made him famous. And yet, there have remained a few hidden treasures. Here are thirty of them, hitherto unseen in public, on view this season in La Gacilly. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, we pay homage to this giant of photography.

Each year we strive to do more and better. With more photographers, more pictures and more exhibition space, we are attracting more and more visitors: 250 000 in the streets of La Gacilly in 2011. That alone is indisputable recognition for an event constantly expanding and improving.The celebrity and attractiveness of La Gacilly naturally benefit from this unique contribution. The spinoff generated by the development of tourism has been well acknowledged. Largely of an economic nature, it contributes to a better life for the local community. The business communities of La Gacilly and the surrounding towns are delighted by the influx of tourists now attracted by the photo festival. Our presence in the media – more and more frequent – sustains the image of a town attentive to the world.

In this way our town brings a notable contribution to the life and fabric of inland Morbihan. Each summer, thanks to the Photo Festival of La Gacilly, we discover fascinating things in Brittany.

The photo festival Peoples and Nature in La Gacilly exhibits ethical, humanist photography, founded on the relationship of Mankind with his environment. It includes the work of photographers from the art world as well as from photojournalism.

For the past 9 years, the festival has supported contemporary photography and promoted artistic creation. It has brought photography into the public sphere, with its artistic, cultural, symbolic and media components, involving it in the concerns of society. Intended for a wide and diverse audience, the festival promotes access to culture in the region. It also brings together public institutions, educators, associations and private individuals around a renowned cultural event.

The largest open-air photo festival in France, it attracted 250,000 visitors last year! Accessible and thought-provoking, it enables large numbers of people to enjoy quality exhibitions with their family and friends.

The streets, gardens and alleys of the village become photography galleries. In 2012 nineteen exhibits will be installed, including more than 600 large-scale photographs! The streets become truly public spaces again. They inform, challenge, surprise and delight. They become places of discussion and debate for people of all ages.

In programming the work of professional photographers of diverse approaches and nationalities, the Photo Festival of La Gacilly has become over the years a local, regional, national and international cultural event and has contributed to establishing La Gacilly as a truly contemporary village.

Enjoy the festival!

Auguste CoudrayPresident

Editorial

p. 2

Editorial

La Gacilly in the colours of Rio

An historic and promising summer! The next United Nations Earth summit on sustainable development will take place in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012, 20 years after the historic first edition in 1992. Nearly 50,000 people are expected to attend. Thousands of NGO’s will be involved in the work, and no less than 120 heads of state will be there to discuss the problems of our ailing planet and address the challenges facing us. Our world has changed in 20 years: we have just passed the symbolic figure of 7 billion inhabitants. 150,000 babies are born every day. Globalization has led to a profound change in our landscape and has accelerated the process of rural exodus. Megapoles have emerged in developing nations and have dramatically altered our patterns of consumption. Creeping desertification has upset biodiversity. With Rio +20, the time has come not only to assess the progress made, but more importantly to create a green economy for a sustainable world. In 2012, the Photo Festival Peoples and Nature in La Gacilly (the Morbihan Region) aims to be the ambassador of this decisive summit. Brazil will exceptionally be the guest of honour for this ninth edition of the festival where we hope you will discover and enjoy the photographic talents of the country which now has become the sixth economic power of the world. In the 19th century, Brazil was still an unknown country. Marc Ferrez captured its immense virgin spaces and its burgeoning cities. In the fifties, José Medeiros, considered to be the pioneer of Brazilian photojournalism, was the first to photograph tribes of the Amazon never before contacted, thus showing the racial and social diversity of the country. Tyba, elected best photo agency in Latin America, will offer the best pictures of its photographers confronted with the environmental challenges facing Brazil today. The young Julio Bittencourt uses photography as «a sort of megaphone to give the voiceless a voice», as in his impressive work on the 911 Prestes Maia, a 22-storey building in Sao Paola. And finally, Anouk Garcia will present the world of Brazilian Indians from shamanism to communion with the Earth: in the region of the Acre, far from any town, the Huni Kuin haunt the Rio Jordao, temple of biodiversity. The Rio summit will also be the occasion to discover the photographic talents of tomorrow, photographers from the art world and photojournalists of international stature. In 20 pictures which made their mark on History, 20 world-renowned photographers will exhibit work from 1992 to 2012 of events that shocked the conscience of man vis-a-vis the planet. The German Peter Bialobrzeski will surprise us with his futuristic work on Asian megapoles. The Frenchman Cédric Delsaux, a gallery veteran, will challenge us with his monumental

works showing a world sick with over-exploitation. The famous Magnum agency will juxtapose the work of two of its eminent representatives: Raymond Depardon with desert people and Stuart Franklin with city dwellers. As for the 7 billion inhabitants of the planet, we will find them in a fresco, contributed by Reuters, made up of 193 portraits of the world, representing 193 United Nation member states. And finally, here in Brittany we will show the faces and hopes of the people who contribute to the life of the Morbihan deparment: the itinerant work of Jean-Michel Turpin and Gilles Bassignac will show men and women living between the sea and the land, rural or urban, proud of their heritage and ready to build a new future. Of course, the peoples of the world remain at the heart of the Festival of La Gacilly. Pierre de Vallombreuse will present the most beautiful pictures taken over the past five years of his encounters with «Root Men». The Spanish Juan Manuel Castro Prieto (Agence VU) will unveil his veritable artwork showing the 5 continents, and the Germans Heidi & Hans-Jürgen Koch will exhibit their astounding work on the great apes, mirrors of us humans. The National Geographic will take us to Russia on a great expedition to discover a relatively unknown biodiversity. Lastly, as a gift, we would like to pay homage to the most famous of our photographers : one hundred years ago Robert Doisneau was born, the man who so heartfully photographed the «insignificant people». His daughters Annette and Francine have discovered forgotten photographs never before shown in public. We present you this treasure trove, exhibited for the first time ever.

Because the world of tomorrow will have to be fundamentally different from the world we know today, because it is incumbent on us to put the notion of sustainability at the center of our way of living, to lead our communities and to interact on a planetary level, the Festival of La Gacilly naturally strives to inspire wonder, to challenge and to awaken our consciences.

Cyril DrouhetCommissioner of the Festival

p. 3

Marc FerrezIMS

The Brazil of origins

Brazil today has become a world power. But here through the eye of Marc Ferrez we can still see a virgin country: the famous “New World”. In these black and white shots taken at the end of the 19th century, just a few years after the invention of photography, we can admire the luxuriant and prolific vegetation of this tropical land. We recognize Rio when it was still only a small seaside resort wedged between the sea and the jungle, touching the ocean and the flank of the mountains. Man had not yet altered the land. Stunning panoramas stretching as far as the eye can see reveal the first signs of modern buildings in paradise, like indelible footprints left behind by passing progress. Even if within the span of one century man has transformed Brazil, nearly destroying it in an industrial frenzy, large swaths of the country are still intact, just as Marc Ferrez once photographed them.

© M

arc

Ferr

ez /

IMS

José MedeirosIMSThey are Brazil

At the end of World War II during the 50’s Brazil still bore the scars of the colonial period, just a few years before the dictatorship swept away the second republic of the country. José Medeiros immortalized that brief moment of euphoria which overcame the country when it experienced the promise of democracy. It was a time of modernity and innovation. The taste of freedom was in the air. From the beaches of Rio to the Amazonian jungle, he captured a nation in movement. Travelling along the coast, through the countryside and the cities, he became interested in both ordinary people and the “good life” of the wealthy. He appreciated dance, rituals and celebrations. He exalted work and excelled in portraits. One of the first people to take an interest in the native peoples of Brazil, he lived for months with the Xarante of Mato Grosso. Natives from the jungle and colonizers on the beach all found themselves in front of his camera. José Medeiros’s photographs are like paintings, small scenes, vestiges of a time past. As some men write history, others choose to illustrate the past by capturing its raw truth in an image. ©

José

Med

eiro

s / I

MS

Exhibitions / Guest of Honor BRAZIL

p. 4

© M

arc

Ferr

ez /

IMS Agence Tyba

Brazil, jungles fevers

It is not surprising that Brazil should be the host of world summits for the environment. In 1992, the world began to worry about the growing deforestation of the Amazon, and so the lungs of the planet saw emergency ‘environmental doctors’ rushing to their bedside. Twenty years later Brazil has confirmed its place as the sixth economic power in the world. With a population of over 200 million, it is breaking all the records of economic growth, attracting investors and developing its industries. However, in dealing with the resulting challenges, the largest country in Latin America has implemented considerable changes. It has had to build highways through the forests, reconsider the territories of its indigenous populations, remodel the landscape in the exploitation of its natural resources, expand its cities into megapoles and face the promise of a new century. We can easily understand why Brazilian leaders wanted the central focus of the Rio + 20 summit to shift from the environment to the economy and development. Clearly, discussion of the Amazon and endangered species has been replaced by attention to the industrial methods of production in emerging countries and to the best ways of integrating hundreds of millions of new consumers. To show this new face of Brazil, the giant of tomorrow faced with its environmental issues, it seemed natural that the Festival of La Gacilly should give voice, or rather, place for the expression in pictures to Tyba, one of the biggest Brazilian photo agencies. These photographs convey, of course, the beauty of a flamboyant and rich country, but also its bustling mines, destruction of the forests, urban renewal and population concentration : a continent/country resolutely forward-looking.

© Jo

sé M

edei

ros

/ IM

S

Anouk GarciaDreams of the shaman

We find ourselves at the far edges of the world, or at its origins. The Rio Jordao appears like an anaconda, meandering through a mysterious landscape several kilometres from the Peruvian border. We are in the state of Acre in the north of Brazil, just near the Bolivian border. The region is principally inhabited by the Huni Kuin, a shamanic tribe. When their lands, until then unexplored, were annexed in 1903 by the Brazilian government, “rubber fever” overcame the newcomers. The native people were decimated when they refused to become slaves for the “black gold barons”, the powerful owners of latex. For an entire century the rituals and ancient knowledge of the Huni Kuin continued to be practiced in secret or fell into oblivion, until one day Ika Muru, a young member of the tribe, undertook a visit to the Ashaninka Indians. There he had a vision instructing him to keep alive the memory of his tribe, a dream which he described as follows: “It is in their history and their ancestral knowledge that the people of the forest will find the solutions and the force necessary to protect their environment, which is intimately connected to their existence and to the natural balance of the world.” That message is more than ever an essential subject of meditation today.In 1983, with the participation of anthropologists, Ika Muru established the first territory of the Huni Kuin. From that moment on, he maintaned the unique goal of promoting the immense culture of his people, whose very essence is found in the knowledge of the plants which surround them. Ika Muru Agostinho Huru Kuin died on December 25, 2011. This exhibition is dedicated to his memory.

© A

nouk

Gar

cia

p. 5

Exhibitions / Guest of Honor BRAZIL

© F

erna

ndo

Buen

o / T

yba

Julio BittencourtPrestes Maia 911 Photography and urbanization have a common history: they are both inventions of modern times, products evolving out of technological advances in the service of Mankind. And of course, the city has always been a favorite subject of photography.This work is a photomontage, an artistic collage of the façade of 911 “Prestes Maia”, a 22-storey building in Sao Paolo. The edifice itself had become in 2006 one of the largest squats in South America with 750 families living there in abject poverty. As manipulation here is evident, the image has become a document: it shows reality by exaggeration and puts the viewer in the position of voyeur, witness to the privacy of strangers. It forces one to reflect upon the problems of our cities today, and to consider the difficulties photographers currently face, in part due to the over-manipulation of the visual image. It does not give us any answers, but reveals the absurdity of an urban policy which deliberately chooses to deny whole sections of the population a place in society. Here we find another encounter between the city and photography, this time emblematic of their mutual crises. These photographs highlight the sad truth which man must address.Today in 2012, the Prestes Maia has been closed. Its inhabitants have all been rehoused.

© Ju

lio B

itten

cour

t

1992 - 2012 twenty photos that struck our ecological conscience

On December 12th 1999, the Maltese oil tanker Erika, loaded with 31,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, was caught in a storm and battered by 6-meter waves off the coast of Penmarc’h near the southern point of the Finistere region of Brittany. In the early morning hours, after having sent a last SOS, the vessel broke in two, spilling its sinister cargo onto the Brittany coast. The picture was viewed all over the world. Cries of “never again !” were heard everywhere. Regulation of these sea-going dumpsters was reinforced. In 2003, an unprecedented drought hit the planet. In India in the Gujarat, thousands of animals perished and people had to dig ever deeper into the Earth’s entrails to find a few liters of water. The world was moved. Universal access to water has now become a major world issue. On March 11th 2011, an earthquake of 8.9 on the Richter scale caused a tsunami to hit the coast of Japan, sweeping away everything in its path. The destruction left tens of thousands dead and the nuclear plant in Fukushima so severly damaged, that fears of another Chernobyl were raised. Television coverage of the traumatism was non-stop. The debate over nuclear power was re-opened.Over the past twenty years since the first summit in Rio in 1992, faced with the general deterioration of the environment, we have come to acknowledge the existence of a genuine ecological conscience. The power of the image, the terrifying vision of an abused planet, has forged this feeling. We, the human population of the world, are beginning to realize that we cannont continue consuming the resources of the Earth as in the past. Our limited resources must be managed to benefit all the inhabitants of the planet, including the generations to come. But most of all, from now on we must commit to preventing risks and catastrophes while there is still time. In twenty compelling photographs from 1992 to today, we wanted to show the events which have affected our conscience and urged us to act positively for a sustainable world.

© A

mit

Dav

e / R

eute

rs

p. 6

Exhibitions / Guest of Honor BRAZIL

© Ju

lio B

itten

cour

t Peter BialobrzeskiMega-cities Manilla, Singapore, Shanghai, Djakarta... With their populations exceeding 10 million, these Asian cities are like anthills, veritable citadels of progress and human megalomania. The photographer Peter Bialobrezski has thoroughly explored them all. Capturing the dizzying dimensions of these hyper towns, Peter Bialobrezski highlights their numerous problems. Inasmuch as they have grown out of control, organisation and structure appear to be cruelly lacking. The fruit of one moment in time, today’s mega-cities are now feeling the crunch. Certain districts of Bangkok have been built on flood-prone areas. And where the concerns of modernity and efficiency are so prominent and take precedence over all else, how can the question of the necessity of nature be addressed? In the near future all these cities are going to be faced with the severity of the problems that their unstemmed growth has created. Solutions will have to be found quickly, but surely by taking inspiration from the past in order to lay the way for a viable future.

© P

eter

Bia

lobr

zesk

i / la

if-Re

a

© A

mit

Dav

e / R

eute

rs

Cédric DelsauxWe will stay on the Earth “We are just poor soldiers caught in the net of the mega-machine, passengers to a compromised destination. And yet, I am fascinated by the world we have created, its materials, its colors and forms: a dose of genius was necessary to invent it... and another dose of folly to live in it.In most of our big cities today we can live our entire life without setting a foot on the ground: car parks, corridors, offices, shopping malls. We no longer live on the planet. We have built another one in place of the first. What is most surprising is that this new hallucination of a world seems so inevitable. Having rendered our landscape “natural”, as if from a vital necessity, it has become part of our collective consciousness. We are so preoccupied by our own recognition and success that we seem to prefer the collective destruction of our world to personal failure. We refuse anything which might compromise our comfort.We will not succeed in hiding for long, however. Our world is no longer livable. One single planet is not enough to fulfill our ambitions. Our appetite is bigger than the Earth. We will have to change our way of living, our dreams and our ideals. If we do not undertake the necessary changes, as is feared, then we must begin to prepare for the worst. I have long wanted to take this trip to the heart of our contradictions, to visit the hidden face of our good conscience. At first I had no plan, was sure of nothing if not the deep conviction that «the world is sad and beautiful», as Giacomo Leopardi wrote, and that we will have to continue to live, come what may.And so I began to list the symptoms of our period. These symptoms have become players, representative of our collective history: the Westernization of the world. They have as such become the symbols, or at least the signs: signs of talent, of the abnegation of human nature and also of its pretentions and blindness. At once real and imaginary, these signs are opening a breach in the heart of reality, provoking a slip, a distorsion from which is emerging a form of poetry and melancholy. I could not help finding beauty in the midst of ugliness. I recognized within it the intimacy of my connection with this world that I admire and abhor at the same time. It is this connection that keeps me alive: this stubborn somber regard which refuses to despair, and the undeniable resulting fragility.”

Cédric Delsaux

© C

édric

Del

saux

p. 7

Exhibitions / ISSUES

Stuart FranklinMagnum Photos

City dwellers

Several months ago the Earth’s population reached the historic number of 7 billion. That number is more than double what it was 50 years ago, and current studies show that it will not stop there. In 2050 there will be 9 billion people living on Earth, in 2025 nearly three quarters of the human population of the Earth will be living in cities. The direct consequence of that phenomenon will be the overpopulation of our mega-cities, inventions of the late twentieth century. During his career, the famous photographer Stuart Franklin visited these cities. Today his photographs illustrate a problem which is only going to worsen over time. A swimming pool in Sao Paolo (21 million people), a street of Shanghai (20 million people), pictures which show the appearance and evolution of life “en masse” in these enormous human ‘hives’. Stuart Franklin plays with the vertiginous lines of the cities he has explored and the situations he has witnessed in an attempt to convey their magnitude, showing vivid, blinding, electric colours in disproportionate scrambled cityscapes where the local population improvises a frantic life

© S

tuar

t Fr

ankl

in /

Mag

num

Pho

tos

Raymond DepardonMagnum Photos

Desert people

At the age of 18, Raymond Depardon, set off on an expedition to the Sahara as a freelance writer. The region would mark him for life. During his subsequent career the renowned French documentary film-maker and photographer returned many times to the Sahara to film. “Un homme sans l’Occident”, “La Captive du Désert” (based on the story of the hostage Françoise Claustre): the majestic dunes of the Sahara and the people who cross it are a constant presence in many of his films. Chad, Libya, Niger, Mauritania, Algeria: Raymond Depardon roamed throughout northern Africa meeting the Touaregs or following refugees fleeing their countries to look for work. Though the momentum of urbanization has overtaken the planet over the last century, indigenous peoples, nomad or sedentary, continue to live far from mega-cities in places where nature still reigns. A look back at the encounter of a lifetime: a man and a desert.

© R

aym

ond

Dep

ardo

n / M

agnu

m P

hoto

s

p. 8

Exhibitions / CONFRONTATION

© S

tuar

t Fr

ankl

in /

Mag

num

Pho

tos

© R

aym

ond

Dep

ardo

n / M

agnu

m P

hoto

s

Robert DoisneauTreasure Trove

Just 100 years ago, on April 14, 1912, the most famous French photographer was born. Who is not familiar with his famous pictures: Le Baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville, La Dernière Valse, L’Ecolier rêveur de la rue Buffon, ou Les Enfants de la Place Hébert? The work of Robert Doisneau comprises nearly 450,000 photographs, representing the heritage of 60 years of work, today brought to fruition by his daughters Annette and Francine. Motivated by the same passion as their father, they revisited his vast œuvre and have brought to light the jewels which were lying dormant in the archives carefully classified by Doisneau himself. “All my life, I have amused myself, I have created my own little theatre.”

In a burst of creativity following the war, he accumulated not only the pictures which made his success, but also the pictures which we unveil here. They are the work of an artist obstinately walking about “where there is nothing to see”, taking advantage of furtive moments, the small pleasures of life, capturing with irony and affection the common people of Paris and of a forgotten France.

A young girl learns with difficulty, to ride a bike, France, 1950 © Robert Doisneau / Gamma-Rapho

The violonccelliste French, Maurice Baquet, tries to open his car covered with snow during a snowstorm, New York, Etats-Unis, 1960

© Robert Doisneau / Gamma-Rapho

p. 9

Exhibitions / TRIBUTE

Pierre de VallombreuseRoot Men: A Retrospective

Les Badjaos in Malaysia, the Gwitchins of Canada, the Inuits of Greenland, not to forget the Navajos, the Bhils or the Rabaris... During five years of “compagnonnage” around the world, Pierre de Vallombreuse photographed more than a dozen peoples, all of which possess unique and specialized indigenous knowledge. The project Hommes Racines (Root Men) aspires to demonstrate that biodiversity, just as cultural diversity, are under serious threat today. The fates of the two are linked. These indigenous peoples can teach us how to protect diversity, which is why the question of their future is so vital. For the past 25 years Pierre de Vallombreuse has met with indigenous peoples the world over. A political thread runs through all his photo documentaries: more than 5,000 ethnic groups representing 300 million people are currently under threat of extinction. Ethnic cleansing, discrimination, ecological disasters and genocide relegate these people to an unacceptable status. The entire cultural heritage of Humankind is in danger. With “Root Men”, Pierre de Vallombreuse has focussed mainly on the relationship these peoples maintain with their environment and how the intrusion of the modern world has affected that relationship. The single purpose of this photographer’s work is to warn the world: “I don’t attempt to show every aspect of each tribe, one would need several lives to do that. I stroll about, I try to capture emotions, information, to compose pictures with meaning. I continue to fight this battle for the sake of freedom: the freedom to be, the freedom to choose one’s destiny, the freedom to remain in one’s own culture.”

© P

ierr

e de

Val

lom

breu

se

p. 10

Heidi & Hans-Jurgen KochLike Us A gesture. A smile. A facial expression. It all seems so familiar. The way of standing, of holding a child. And the hands.... folded just like we do sometimes. There is an air of “déjà-vu”. We instinctively focus on the similarities that we’ve never noticed before. The certain connection which exists between the family of hominids (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangs-outans) and ourselves, homo sapiens, has been highlighted by photographers Heidi and Hans-Jurgen Koch. Their view and their singular technique capture startling, often troubling similarities. To achieve this effect the couple worked as if doing a fashion shot, studying their models closely, catching close-ups of facial expressions, details showing a disturbing similarity to ours. The result is stunning. The connection originally established by Charles Darwin becomes obvious and grows through these photographs, notwithstanding the discomfort this may cause. We are touched and moved by the kinship. Having seen these images, there is no longer room for doubt. These so-called “primates” are finally quite “Like Us”. Just another irrefutable proof that the boundary between man and nature is hardly one small step.

© H

eidi

& H

ans-

Jürg

en K

och

Exhibitions / PEOPLES & NATURE

Juan Manuel Castro PrietoAgence VU’Encounters

Juan Manuel Castro Prieto has without realizing it illustrated a value which is dear to us here in La Gacilly: wherever Man finds himself, wherever he lives or wherever he goes, he is in contact with Nature, near or far. In these photographs, nature is present in one of her most emblematic forms: the tree. In Greek mythology, Ulysses carved his bed out of a giant olive tree in the middle of his home. This myth and the sensitive work of Castro Prieto illustrate the same truth: that Nature is at the heart of the life of Man. Nature may be a haven or a hideaway. As an essential element of our life, we have a duty to protect and preserve nature and there find sustenance. This reality has not changed over the centuries, as the wisdom of the photographs of Casto Prieto attest. As with Homer’s hero, Castro Prieto has experienced his odyssey, following it through India, to Ethiopia, to the Island of Sumatra and to the far reaches of the summits of Vanuatu.

© Ju

an M

anue

l Cas

tro

Prie

to /

Age

nce

VU

’

© P

ierr

e de

Val

lom

breu

se

p. 11

© H

eidi

& H

ans-

Jürg

en K

och

Andreï KamenevThe beauties of the Altaï For National Geographic Russia, the photographer Andrei Kamenev travelled to the Republic of Altaï in southern Siberia on the borders of Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia. Largely unknown to the public, the Altaï enjoys a unique climate. Andrei Kamenev has photographed the wonders of an exceptional flora amidst lush vegetation, in a vast forest favored by uncommon climatic conditions and watered by mineral springs. He has created a vast photo-inventory of medicinal plants, ancient trees and enchanting flowers. An array of stunning plants composes this ode to life in a land where human presence is scarce. ©

And

rei K

amen

ev /

Nat

iona

l Geo

grap

hic

Russ

ia

Exhibitions / PEOPLES & NATURE

p. 12

Gilles Bassignac & Jean-Michel TurpinThe people of the Morbihan in the objective Each year the Festival Peoples and Nature, with the support of the Conseil Générale du Morbihan, makes it a point of honor to solicit a renowned photographer to work on our department. This year two photographers have united their efforts in a unique photographic discovery of Brittany. One year ago Gilles Bassignac and Jean-Michel Turpin set out on the roads of France attempting to capture today’s French people in a portrait gallery. In four months of research, exploring more than 90 departments, travelling15,000 kilometers, the two men in a camping van took nearly 300 portraits. The goal was to reveal what all French people hold in common: the desire to live together and share the same land. These men and women, with their cultural diversity – young and old, black or white, workers, farmers, unemployed or company managers, Christians or Muslims, on the left or the right – all of them posed for the camera. For the new project, undertaken in similar conditions, the two photographers travelled the roads of the Morbihan region in their camping van, meeting the people who constitute its wealth, sketching the portrait of a land of contrasts between country and city, sea and sky, modern life and tradition. All who were photographed answered the simple questions they were asked concerning their attachment to their native land and its heritage. The exhibition presents a mosaic of photographs, videos and memories.

© G

illes

Bass

igna

c &

Jean

-Mic

hel T

urpi

n

Agence Reuters7 billion people, 193 nations

At the end of 2011, the number of human beings living on planet Earth surpassed 7 billion. 7 billion people - a mere 12 years ago the world population was only 6 billion. Ban Ki-moon, the General Secretary of the UN, immediately warned that the event was by no means trivial:“This is not a simple matter of a number. This is a human story. Seven billion people need food, energy, interesting work and education, rights and freedom, freedom of speech, the freedom to be able to raise their children in peace and security: everything that each person wants for himself, multiplied by 7 billion.” How are we going to manage this? How will we be able to ensure the development of humanity exponentially when by definition our ressources are rare? Add to that equation that the world population is set to reach 10 billion in 2100! When we consider that each evening one billion people go to bed hungry, that the lack of water is becoming a major issue, that urbanization is runaway and that the under 25-year-olds represent 43% of the population, Rio+20 must address this essential question of how to live together.Who are these 7 billion individuals? In 2012, the UN lists 193 member states, South Sudan being the last to enter in July 2011. With the cooperation of Reuters, the Festival of La Gacilly wanted to pay homage to all these nations, to all these people, a gigantic fresco of 193 portraits of each of these countries, the anonymous representatives of the 7 billion men and women we are today.

© Ia

n H

odgs

on /

Reut

ers

Exhibitions / PEOPLES & NATURE

Pictures without Borders AssociationMy EarthImages Sans Frontières, “Pictures without Borders”, the second largest international association of amateur photogaphers, has been a partner of the Festival of La Gacilly since its creation. 2012, year of the Earth Summit in Rio, offers the occasion to pay homage to our Earth, so often mistreated, but which fortunately still retains wonderful places. Its thousands of members were asked to submit their most beautiful photograph of the Earth. Among the hundreds of pictures received, twenty photographs were selected from 13 members representing five nationalities: France, Spain, Italy, Vietnam and the United States.The results show a wide diversity of landscapes, including deserts, the wide open spaces of America, the far north and inspiring Asian landscapes. All the photographers have provided comments on their pictures. Here is a world tour of the jewels of our planet.

Marie-Louise Bernard . Georges Delattre . Emanuele Fusco . Alain Gaymard . André Gertosio . Michel Ledamoisel . Long Ly Hoang . Santos Moreno . Alberto Salvaterra . Francis Tack . Marie-josé Tack . Thierry Vezon . Claude Wegscheider

www.image-sans-frontiere.com / www.clubphotolagacilly.com

Canyonsland National Park, USA© Marie-Louise Bernard

Border between Brazil and Argentina© Santos Moreno

Hokkaido, Japan © Thierry Vezon

p. 13

© G

illes

Bass

igna

c &

Jean

-Mic

hel T

urpi

n

Bayard Nature & Territories / Emmanuel Boitier

Tree of the Year 2011 An exhibition on the fence of the UNESCO building

The first “Tree of the Year” contest was organized in France by the magazine Terre Sauvage and the National Forest Bureau (ONF) with the support of the United Nations for education, science and culture. Based on the criteria of beauty, biodiversity and their history with humans, 26 regional trees were selected: remarkable trees, immortalized by Emmanuel Boitier, photographer for Terre Sauvage.

Le t

illeul

de

Doy

e (Ju

ra)

© E

mm

anue

l Boi

tier

/ Ter

re S

auva

ge

Exhibitions / PEOPLES & NATURE

Biographies

Gilles BassignacGilles Bassignac worked as a photojournalist for Le Point magazine, then for more than 20 years covered politics in France and abroad for Gamma. Since 2008 he has worked freelance for many major magazines. He received the “Société du Festival du Scoop” Prize in 1999.www.gillesbassignac.com

Peter BialobrzeskiPeter Bialobrezski is a German photographer. He began his career in a local newspaper in the region of Wolfsbourg. He then studied photography in Essen and in London. For 15 years Peter’s work was published throughout the world, then he decided to concentrate on his personal projects. While publishing eight books over eight years, he exhibited his vast opus all around the world, in the galleries of New York, Hamburg and Shanghai. In 2012 he received the Erich Salomon prize, awarded by the German Society of Photographers. The works included in this exhibition are all from his lastest book “The Raw and the Cooked”.www.bialobrzeski.de

Julio BittencourtAfter living in New York for 6 years, Julio Bittencourt returned to Brazil and worked as a photographer for Valor Economico, a Sao Paolo newspaper. Since 2006 he has worked as a freelance photographer and exhibits in the major cities of the world, publishing his work in prestigious reviews such as Geo, Stern, Time Magazine, Le Monde and The Guardian. The project “Window of Prestes Maia 911” was published in 2008.www.juliobittencourt.com

Emmanuel BoitierBayard Nature & TerritoriesEmmanuel Boitier holds a degree in ecology and has been a photojournalist since 2009. His regular work with Terre Sauvage has taken him from the jungles of Vanuatu to the high plateaus of Abyssinia. He has also travelled to many French regions, including the ancient volcanos of Auvergne, where he currently resides. “This tour de France of trees and of the people who admire them has filled me with emotions: I hope my photographs will convey them.”

Juan Manuel Castro PrietoAgence VU’Juan Manuel Castro Prieto resides is his native city of Madrid, and is represented by the agency VU’, based in Paris. His first prints, made in the thirties in Cuzco from the original glass plates of his photographs of Martin Chambi, revealed his immense talent for the portrait. He subsequently fell in love with Peru, exploring and photographing the country over a period of 12 years. Today he works predominantly in color in a highly personal style which, from Ethiopia to India, affords him the opportunity to play with light and tints. His work has received numerous awards.www.agencevu.com

Cédric DelsauxCédric Delsaux was born in 1974. He obtained a BA in cinema and an MA in Modern Literature, then worked in publicity. Since 2002 he has spent most of his time on photography. He approaches his work as a film-maker, transcending reality, revealing a fascinating and terrifying world, exploring the ambivalent relationship of man and nature. He has just published “Dark Lens” (Editions Xavier Barral) in which the characters of Star Wars evolve in a futuristic, but very real, world.www.cedricdelsaux.com

Raymond DepardonMagnum PhotosRaymond Depardon has had a career as diverse as his work. He covered the demonstrations against the Vietnam war in the United States as well as the Algerian war, then founded the Gamma photo agency with Gilles Caron in 1967. He followed the presidential campaign of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1974, making a documentary film which was not broadcast until the first decade of the 21st century. Eventually he joined the prestigious Magnum agency. Photojournalist, journalist, writer and film director with 3 César awards to his name, Raymond Depardon has left a lasting mark on the history of journalism.www.magnumphotos.com/RaymondDepardon

Robert DoisneauRobert Doisneau was born in 1912 in the Parisian suburb of Gentilly. He spent an uneventful childhood behind the heavy lace curtains of his family home, then studied lithography at the Estienne school. He entered into working life drawing pharmaceutical labels, then was initiated into the world of art by André Vigneau for whom he became a young operator in 1931. After four years working for the advertising department at the Renault factories, he was laid off for repeated lateness. Here was the opportunity to finally become a freelance photographer. However, when war was declared his projects were abruptly stopped short. In the euphoria at the end of the war, despite the necessity to earn his living photographing to order, he accumulated the pictures that would make his success : always going « where there is nothing to see », seeking out the fleeting moments, the small pleasures of life lit by sunlight reflected from the city blacktop. At his death in April 1994, he left behind 450,000 negatives which tell the story of his times with tender amusement and goodwill. And yet, this tone should not hide the depth of meaning, the defiance of power and authority and the invincible spirit of independence which permeate Doisneau’s work.www.robert-doisneau.com

p. 14

Biographies

Marc FerrezPrecurser of Brazilian photojournalism, Marc Ferrez (d. 1923) immortalized the beginnings of the modernisation of his native country. Valued as documentary, his work can also be appreciated as art in its own right. His choice of framing and composition, as well as his use of light, made their contribution to the flegling art of his time. He also actively participated in the expansion and development of photographic technology. His work numbers over 4,000 negatives on glass plates and is kept at the Instituto Moreira Salles in Rio de Janeiro. www.ims.uol.com.br

Stuart FranklinMagnum PhotosAuthor of the famous picture of the man and the tank on Tienanmen Square, the British photographer Stuart Franklin first worked as a correspondent for Sygma, covering the civil war in Lebanon, the famine in Somalia and the unemployment strikes in Great Britain. In 1985 he joined Magnum and served as its president between 2006 and 2009. Winner of two World Press Photo awards, he has also been published more than 20 times in National Geographic. His latest work on women in Mali is currently on show in New York and in Philadelphia.www.stuartfranklin.com

Anouk GarciaBorn in Africa, Anouk Garcia is an enthusiastic traveller. As an anthropologist /adventurer of the 21st century, she employs her pen, her camera and her films in the service of her research. She is particularly interested in the relationship between man and nature. Following her studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, she worked in an architecture firm in China, then began working as a photographer. In her search for the “land of origins”, she has travelled 7,000 kilometres throughout Brazil. www.anoukgarcia.com

Heidi & Hans-Jurgen KochHans-Jürgen & Heidi Koch were both born in Giessen, Germany. The couple studied at the University of Bielefeld. Sharing a keen interest in animals, the two photographers have published their work in numerous magazines such as Stern, Geo, Le Figaro Magazine, Life and National Geographic. Since the beginning of their career in animal photogtraphy in 1989, their work has received numerous awards.www.heidihanskoch.com

Andrei KamenevNational Geographic RussiaAndrei Kamenev was born in Moscow in 1962. A photographer of wide open spaces, Andrei Kamenev goes where few ever venture. For the past 25 years, he has toured the globe from the North Pole to the karst caves of Mexico. As a specialist of macrophotography, he captures the infinitely small world of insects and plants.

José MedeirosJosé Medeiros has deservedly been called “the pope of Brazilian photojournalism”. Alongside Jean Manzon, a French refugee photographer in Brazil, José Medeiros (1921-1990) worked many years for the magazine O Cruzeiro, a review with nation-wide readership. As with many Western magazines of the same period, O Cruzeiro gave pride of place to photography. The photo reports of Medeiros constitute an immense historical heritage for Brazil. His work of nearly 20,000 photographs is kept at the Instituto Moreira Salles in Rio de Janeiro.www.ims.uol.com.br

Agence ReutersReuters is the biggest multi-media news agency in the world. It employs 2,700 reporters: journalists, video and photo journalists in 196 offices and 131 countries. With a network of more than 600 photographers and photo editors, Reuters daily produces some 1,700 photographs of news in the world of politics, the economy, sport, leisure and show business. These pictures are broadcast throughout the world’s media in nearly real time using the latest technologies of image recording, editing and transmission. The work of its photographers regularly receives prestigious photo awards.www.pictures.reuters.com

Agence TybaFounded in 1991 by the photographers Clause Meyer, Ricardo Azoury and Rogério Reis, the photo agency Tyba takes its name from a Tupi Indian expression meaning“the multitude”. Working exclusively in Brazil and providing photographs for the entire Brazilian press, the agency today represents more than 150 photographers and has constituted an archive of over 800,000 photographs of the natural heritage of Brazil, its environmental problems and its cities.www.tyba.com.br

Jean-Michel TurpinJean-Michel Turpin has worked for Sygma and Gamma and is today an independent photographer, alternating work on French society with international reports. Holding awards from the World Press, he has participated since 2006 in the France 2 project “Rendez-vous en Terre Inconnue” for which he provides photographic coverage.www.jmturpin.photoshelter.com

Pierre de VallombreuseBorn in 1962 in Bayonne, Pierre de Vallombreuse followed the example of Claude Levi-Strauss in his commitment to the survival of indigenous peoples. Since the beginning of his career he has taken 140,000 pictures of indigenous women and men, the living proof of human diversity. He has exhibited in the world’s largest festivals (Rencontres d’Arles, Visa pour l’Image, Les Champs Libres...), published in the most famous magazines (Géo, Newsweek, Le Figaro Magazine, El Mundo,...) and is the author of several works, including Peuples published by Flammarion and prefaced by Edgar Morin.www.hommes-racines.fr

p. 15

The largest outside photography festival in France,19 exhibits, over 600 photographs

large sizes for 4 months

June 1st to September 30th, 2012

Sylvie Grumbach / sylvie.grumbach@2e-bureau.comMarie-Laure Girardon / m.girardon@2e-bureau.comtel +33 1 42 33 93 18

Pre s s Con t a c t s

2e B U R E A U

www.2e-bureau.com

conc

eptio

n/m

ise e

n pa

ge : V

alér

ie B

ourg

ois

/ 2e

BURE

AU